NEW DELHI: Tax authorities recently uncovered approximately 18,000 fictitious companies registered under the GST, allegedly involved in tax evasion totaling around Rs25,000 crore, according to an official statement.
This discovery emerged during an extensive all-India crackdown on fraudulent companies exploiting the GST system. During the operation, tax officers identified 73,000 companies for verification, suspecting many of being created solely to claim ineligible input tax credits (ITC) without genuine trade activities.
According to the official, “Around 73,000 GST Identification Numbers (GSTINs) were selected for verification during the second nationwide anti-fraud campaign, with about 18,000 found to be non-existent and linked to evasion of approximately Rs24,550 crore.”
The campaign also prompted voluntary GST payments of roughly Rs70 crore from businesses. The government has ramped up its efforts to counteract fraudulent GST registrations, with more frequent physical inspections to verify legitimacy.
This was the second nationwide operation targeting fake GST registrations, which ran from August 16 to the end of October. During the initial drive, conducted from May 16 to July 15, 2023, authorities identified 21,791 non-existent entities and uncovered a suspected tax evasion amounting to Rs24,010 crore.
