The State government, which is now in the second position in terms of GST collection, will intensify measures to check evasions, said Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday.
Responding to a question by Congress member M. Nagaraj on behalf of Prakash Rathod in the Legislative Council, the Chief Minister said as of December 22, the State had investigated 11,914 cases of GST fraud and detected tax evasion of ₹1,819.94 crore. “A total of ₹648.85 crore, including ₹497.98 crore tax, ₹19.34 crore interest, and ₹131.53 crore penalty, has been collected. This was made possible by efficient officials in our special vigilance squads and use of technology,” the Chief Minister said.
Explaining the various modes of GST evasion, the Chief Minister said, “It is being done through hidden transactions, submission of input tax with fake documents, shipment of goods without valid documents, and sales without bills.”
Pointing out that the amount of arecanut transported to other States evading tax was higher than that being sold in the State with tax, he said, “Our vigilance squads have detected goods being transported to Delhi without paying any tax from Mangaluru port and have collected nearly ₹1,000 crore.”
