Tax Evasion & Recovery under GST - A Brief Analysis

On 14th December, 2018 at 17:57 IST Ministry of Finance has released a Press Release regarding the data relating to evasion of tax and recovery thereon. The State/ Union Territory-wise data has been given which includes total number of cases of evasion detected with amount and amount recovered thereon with number of cases. The data presented are from April 2018 to November 2018. The total amount of tax evasion detected totals to Rs 12,766.85 Crore with a number of cases 3,196/- out of which Rs 7,909.96 Crore has been recovered from total 2,634 cases. This indicates that total 61.96% amount has been recovered which covers 82.42% of number of cases. The data that has been released are interesting to watch and analyze the trend across different State/ Union Territories. Out of total 36 State/ Union Territories, no cases of detection have been reported in Mizoram, Nagaland, Andaman & Nicobar Island and Lakshadweep. Other individual data shows us the following fact:

1. Highest Number of Cases Detected: In following States Percentage of cases detected exceeds 5% of total number of cases across India.

2. Lowest Number of Cases Detected: In following States/ Union Territories the number of cases has not been more than 10.The States/ UTs where no cases has been detected are excluded in this analysis.

3. Out of the total amount of evasion 30.54% (Rs 3,898.72 Crore) of total amount of Rs 12,766.85 Crore has been reported from Maharashtra. In other States/ UTs the amount is less than 10% of total amount. And Manipur has the lowest amount of tax evasion with just Rs 0.18 Crore.

4. Out of total recoveries of Rs 7,909.96 Crore, highest recovery has been done from Maharashtra with amount being recovered is Rs 2,475.27 Crore (31.29% of total amount recovered).

5. When individual State/ UT’s data are looked into, it can be seen that there is some mistake in figures presented. Like, in case of Madhya Pradesh total numbers of cases detected are 252 but recovery has been made from 259 cases. Similarly, in case of Daman & Diu total amount of evasion detected was Rs 8.44 Crore but amount recovered is Rs 8.64 Crore. Likewise in Chandigarh amount detected was Rs 2.80 Crore but amount recovered is Rs 3.23 Crore. In all these State/UT more than 100% of recovery is shown either in number or amount. In Chandigarh 2 Cases are still unrecovered but in Daman & Diu recovery has been made in all the cases.

6. In few State/ UT amount recovered is far below the par, even though recovery has been made in all the cases.

*amount in Crore

7. Apart from the above facts, the amount of recovery in States where high amount of evasion has been detected like in States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, MP, UP, West Bengal, etc the Percentage of amount recovered is less than 75%.

The above analysis can also be understood from many other dimensions, which might not have been reflected here.

On an overall, the above trend analysis shows us that the Government is able to identify & present State/ UT wise data of detection and recovery, which was not witnessed in earlier regime of Excise & Service Tax. But the percentage of recovery is a worrying factor. These evasions are detected in the time wherein GSTR-2 filing remains suspended and also tax payable under Reverse Charge Mechanism (other than notified u/s 9(3) of CGST Act, 2017) is also deferred. It is expected that once the GSTR-2 filing is regularized there might be some rise in these figures.

The full Press Release can be accessed at: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=186410