More than 14,000 registrations of bogus firms cancelled in Nov, Dec

Kolkata: In its efforts to curb the malice of fake invoices under Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Directorate of Commercial Taxes,West Bengal, has cancelled more than 14,000 registrations of bogus firms in the months of November and December last year in a special drive.

"GST registration can be done from anywhere in the country. But we smelt the rat when we witnessed that maximum registrations were being done from remote areas of the state which was rather unusual. Accordingly, we formed teams that were instrumental in taking special drives by travelling physically to such places from where such suspicious registrations were being made. We have canceled over 14,000 registrations during November and December," a senior official of the state Finance department said.

As per Section 132 of CGST Act 2017, issuance of an invoice without supply of goods or services and wrongful availing or utilisation of Input Tax Credit is a cognizable and non-bailable offense.

The official said that inquiry against such registrations which is otherwise a difficult and strenuous job has been so successful due to sheer diligence of the officers of Commercial Tax and tremendous support from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Enforcement.

Such fraudulent activities of issuing invoices without supply of goods or services not only defrauds banks but adversely affects the revenue collection. Unearthing of such activities assume significance as it impacts not only the concerned state's tax collection but other states too, considering the fact that GST registration can be done from anywhere in the country.

The official added that Bengal's GST collection has been more than 20 percent in comparison to last year with an average of over Rs 2600 crore in the ongoing fiscal.

A senior official of the state Finance department has urged the Additional Chief Secretary of the Home & Hill Affairs department to instruct the concerned police authorities to promptly attend to request for any assistance on the part of state GST authorities in its regular intelligence based searches, raids and enquiries at the business places or at the residences of tax payers etc.