Amidst the COVID-19 crisis and the consequent economic crisis, the Delhi Government has started proceedings against the tax defaulters and has sent notices to 5,584 companies for not filing GST returns and 36 similar notices to those who failed to have filed VAT returns, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said in a statement on Friday.
As per the statement, the Delhi government has collected around ₹3,777 crore in taxes so far in 2020, as against ₹5,792 crore in the corresponding period (January to July) the previous year, the statement read.
Sisodia, who also holds the finance portfolio in the Delhi cabinet, said: “Several sectors such as e-commerce, insurance, and financial services were not affected by the pandemic.”
There are 35 such companies who have not filed tax returns for the fourth quarter of 2019-20 as well as the first quarter of 2020-21. Also, as many as 10,800 companies paid lesser than what is due for the fourth quarter of 2019-20, the statement said.
“Delhi government will strictly scrutinize the reasons behind not filing tax returns by these companies from unaffected sectors,” said Sisodia, adding that the government has so far scrutinized 15,000 companies.
The statement further said, “The extended time period granted for the filing of GST return for the first quarter of 2020-21 got over in July 2020. The Delhi government is also identifying the taxpayers evading tax. The department has been able to recover ₹10 crore from two such defaulting companies in the last week. The department is also analyzing the tax payment profile of such taxpayers along with their overall tax profile in the previous quarters.”
