The GST officials in last three years, have detected a total of Rs 62,000 crore worth of Goods and Services Tax (GST) evasion (or frauds) using fake invoices during the past three years, said a senior official of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).
The 48th GST Council meeting this month have increased the monetary threshold limit to two crores. Sources said that this is the primary reason the government kept such offences out of the increased monetary threshold of Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) in the meeting.
Since 2020, GST authorities at the central level have arrested over 1,030 individuals who used fake invoices to illegally avail or pass on input tax credit.
The number of cases and amount involved would be much more as state-level matters are separate, report said.
“There are unscrupulous traders who create fake invoices by showing bogus e-way bills, movement of goods. Since the entities registered across different states, and kept on changing their numbers, tracing them was difficult,” the official cited above said.
The GST Council this month approved doubling the threshold to Rs 2 crore for initiating criminal proceedings for various offences under GST, except those involving fake invoices, as part of its decriminalisation drive.
At present, if the amount evaded exceeds Rs 2 crore (but not more than Rs 5 crore/Rs 50 million), the jail term could be three years.
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