In January, Finance Ministry had said that authorities are investigating 3,626 cases of GST evasion/violations involving an estimated amount of Rs 15,278.18 crore. Rs 9,959.29 crore had been recovered out of the total detection amount. The ministry had stated that the quantum of tax evasion detected had gone up in FY 2018-19 (Up to December 2018) over FY17-18 and FY 2016-17.
8917 cases involving Rs 48555.06 crore had been detected by the authorities till December 2018 while 6,815 cases (Rs 32,204.49 crore) and 10,212 cases (Rs 23,618.52 crore) were detected in the FY17-18 and FY16-17 respectively. Tax evasion will become tougher in the coming days courtesy DGARM and soon to be launched 360-degree profiling of the taxpayers.
Directorate General of Analytics & Risk Management (DGARM) is the apex body under CBIC. The DGARM had become operational with effect from 1st July 2017 and utilizes internal and external data sources like income tax, MCA, Eway bills, GSTN etc for data mining and analysis to generate outputs for focused and targeted action by field formations and investigation wings of CBIC. DGARM had resulted in total detection of Rs 677.68 crore till November 2018.
According to Rajat Mohan, Partner, AMRG & Associates, DGARM prepares thematic reports with a list of taxpayers on whom there is a risk of tax evasion after analysing the data. These reports are then sent to tax officers of the CBIC who are responsible for certifying the efficacy of data and initiating appropriate action against the tax evaders. Mohan added that the government soon intends to have 360-degree profiling of every taxpayer and that data would be shared on a real-time basis between all government authorities using Adhaar/PAN. He stated that if the reports of this authority are swift and accurate, then collections would be very high. In a recent DO letter by CBIC chairman, reconciliation between Income tax and service tax data was found to be as high as INR 12 lakh crores in 2015-2016.
Technical glitches are still hampering the GST return filing process. The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has also been simplifying the process based on inputs received and is expected to resolve the issues in the coming days.
