The centre and the state governments together have launched a two month special drive from Tuesday against GST fraudsters creating panic among business owners.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) in an instruction to all of its field formation said, "A Special All-India Drive may be launched by all Central and State tax administrations from May 16, 2023, to July 15, 2023 to detect suspicious/fake GSTINs and further remedial action to weed out these fake billers from the GST ecosystem and to safeguard Government revenue."
During the two-months drive officials from the CBIC may visit business premises to detect suspicious registrations and suspend their GST numbers. If any bogus registrations are found then the department will take strict action against them which includes suspension and cancellation of the registration.
Further action will also be taken to understand the mastermind behind the fake GSTIN for further action and for recovering government dues or provisional attachment of property or bank accounts.
An official speaking to the Times of India said, "The department has made it clear that it is mandatory for shopkeepers and all other types of companies to put up boards with GST numbers outside their premises. Department officials will check markets, individual areas and other business premises."
Further the report by Times of India states that officers would be specially allocated for the drive and they will verify official records with physical inspection. A national coordination committee will monitor the progress of this special drive. The team would be headed by GST member, CBIC and will include Principal Chief Commissioners/ Chief Commissioners Delhi and Bhopal CGST Zones, Chief Commissioners of State Tax of Gujarat, Telangana and West Bengal.
Why did the government decide to go ahead with this drive?
Currently there are 1.39 crore registered taxpayers but the mounting tax evasion is worrying. According to officials, last month GST evasion detected by tax officers was over Rs 1.01 lakh crore in the financial year 2023, which is double from the previous year. The data further states that from this over Rs 21,000 crore was recovered by the officers of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence.
Panic among traders
But on the other hand the drive has created panic among the trades as they fear it would lead to exploitation of dealers and also promote corruption. While some said that the traders are already suffering from complex GST compliance others claimed this would go against the government's claim of Ease of Doing Business initiatives.
Though experts believe not all GST dealers or traders need to worry as this would be part of routine check and it will also not affect the regular tax payers.
What precautions do you need to take?
According to experts, GST dealers should display their business names with their GST numbers at their premises. Additionally you should keep a soft and hard copy of the last three filed returns, purchases and sales for verification.
