The government has warned businesses against generating fake invoices to evade GST saying that tax officers will take strict action in such cases.
On the second anniversary of the implementation of GST, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said that the menace of fake invoice needs to be checked to ensure that honest taxpayers do not suffer and the government does not lose revenues. He also urged GST officers to be sensitive to the concerns of honest taxpayers saying their interaction with trader moulds public opinion about GST.
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said GST officers have booked 535 cases of fake invoices involving a total fraudulent claim of ₹2,565 crore of input tax credit (ITC) and arrested 40 persons in the current financial year. In 2018-19, 1,620 cases of fake invoices were registered involving fraudulent ITC claim of ₹11,251 crore under the GST and 154 persons were arrested.
The GST Council, chaired by Union finance minister and comprising state counterparts decided to launch pilot project under which businesses above a specified threshold will have to generate e-invoice for B2B (business-to-business) sales from January 1. As per the plan of e-invoice being worked out by the tax officers, entities with a turnover of more than ₹50 crore will be required to generate electronic invoices on a government portal for B2B sales.
