Service tax dodgers formed the bulk at ₹22,973 crore

The investigation arm of the Finance Ministry has detected tax evasion worth ₹29,088 crore in 1,835 cases during April-October period of the current financial year, a senior official said Wednesday.

571 cases of GST

Of this, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), which is enforcement agency for checking indirect tax evasion, has detected evasion of goods and services tax (GST) worth ₹4,562 crore in 571 cases.

However, the bulk of the evasion was detected in case of service tax.

The total number of cases where service tax was evaded stood at 1,145 involving ₹22,973 crore.

In case of central excise duty, the DGGI detected 119 cases, where tax evaded was worth ₹1,553 crore.

“DGGI officers have detected total indirect tax evasion of ₹29,088 crore during April-October,” the official told PTI.

He further said that the total amount of detection was likely to be more as the data did not include detection by field offices of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).

On recovery of the evaded taxes, the official said that a total amount of ₹5,427 crore was realised during the seven-month period till October. These, he added, included recovery from previous cases and those detected during the current financial year.

Of the total recovery, ₹3,124 crore was from GST evaders, followed by ₹2,174 crore in case of service tax, and ₹128 crore from those who had evaded central excise.

The larger chunk of recovery during April-October in GST, the official said, could be attributed to the decision of the CBIC to crack down on the evaders.