Govt to integrate data repositories to curb GST evasion, fraud
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) is mulling to merge its existing database of DG (Systems) with that of Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) in order to expand its coverage of taxpayer activities, and curb tax evasion, a senior official told FE. “The CBIC is likely to adopt GSTN as the prime database, starting the first week of June,” the official said.
At present, the common GST Portal developed by GSTN, is currently functioning as the “front-end” of the overall GST-IT ecosystem; and DG (Systems) is functioning as “back-end” that handles tax administration functions, such as refund, investigation, and adjudication by the tax officers. “From June, GSTN will function as the back-end as well,” said the official.
The exercise of merger is taking place mainly because the CBIC intends to curb tax evasion. In FY24, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) detected over 6,074 cases involving evasion of duty of over Rs 2.01 trillion. It is approximately 10% of total GST collection in FY24 with a voluntary payment of Rs 26,598 crore, which contributed to about 1.4% of total GST collections for FY24. In FY23, as many as 4,872 cases of GST evasion were detected involving evasion of duty of Rs 1.01 trillion, with voluntary payment of Rs 20,713 crore, as per official data.
