GST evasion Case: Tax officials have detected about 18,000 fake companies registered under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which are involved in tax evasion of about Rs 25,000 crore. In the recently concluded nationwide drive against fake companies, officials had identified 73,000 companies that they suspected were set up only to avail of 'input tax credit' (ITC) without selling any actual goods and thus defrauding the government exchequer.

About 73,000 GSTINs identified

"In the second nationwide drive against fake registrations, we had identified around 73,000 GSTINs for verification. Of these, around 18,000 were found to be non-existent. These fake companies were involved in tax evasion of around Rs 24,550 crore," the official told PTI.

Voluntary GST payments of about Rs 70 crore were made by companies during the special drive. The government is taking targeted action to check fake GST registrations and more and more physical verifications are taking place. The second nationwide drive against fake registrations ran from August 16 to the end of October.

During the first nationwide drive against fake registrations from May 16 to July 15 last year, 21,791 GST-registered units were found to be non-existent. Suspected tax evasion of Rs 24,010 crore was detected during the drive.