In the current Financial Year 2023-24, Rs 1.36 lakh crore has been detected by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) as overall GST evasion (including fake ITC) and voluntary payment of Rs 14,108 crore has been made for the same for this fiscal, said Ministry of Finance on Thursday.

In this fiscal, a total of 1,040 fake ITC cases involving Rs 14,000 crore has been detected with a total of 91 fraudsters have been apprehended till date.

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From April 2020 to September 2023, the DGGI detected over 6,000 fake ITC cases involving more than Rs 57,000 crore GST evasion and a total of 500 persons have been arrested, said the Ministry of Finance.

DGGI, the premier Intelligence and Investigating Agency of GST, initiated a Special Drive against the practice of claiming fake Input Tax Credit (ITC) for the aforesaid period.

Cases have been unraveled using data analysis aided by advanced technical tools which has led to the arrest of tax evaders, Finance Ministry said in a statement.

These tax syndicates often use gullible persons and enticed them with job/commission/bank loan etc. to extract their KYC documents which were then used for creation of fake/shell firms/companies without their knowledge and consent, it added.

Importantly, the ministry highlighted that in some cases, KYCs were used with the knowledge of the concerned person by paying them small pecuniary benefits.

In order to tackle the menace of GST evasion, the DGGI develops intelligence, especially in new areas of tax evasion, through advanced tools for data analytics besides using its intelligence network across the country to collect such information.