Amit Mitra writes to FM, urges to take corrective steps to stop GST fraud

Kolkata: Amit Mitra, Principal Chief Advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, wrote to Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday expressing his astonishment and deep concern at the deep rooted tentacles of GST fraud prevalent nationwide and urged her to take immediate corrective measures to curb this massive laundering of public money.

Mitra reiterated in his letter that, if necessary the entire GST system should be overhauled and for this convene a meeting of the full GST Council immediately to exclusively deliberate upon the root causes of this massive fraud and find timebound solutions to this heinous menace. ‘I write this to you out of extreme concern and deep anguish. The manner in which the news concerning GST frauds are making headlines even after six and a half years of its implementation is appalling.’ Mitra’s letter read.

He said the Centre issued a press release on January 7, stating that the special drive against fake registration that was launched since mid-May, 2023 resulted in detection of 29,273 “bogus firms” involved in suspected input tax credit evasion of Rs 44,015 crore.

‘In this regard, I would also like to highlight that in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on July 31, 2023, concerning GST evasion, you stated that during the period from 2020-21 till May 2023, a total of 43,516 cases of GST fraud was detected involving Rs 2,68,537 crore!!,’ Mitra’s letter read.

He further stated that he has been cautioning about the irreparable damage that is being caused to GST on account of fraud since long. ‘In recent days, consistent monthly collection of GST revenue above Rs 1.6 lakh crore is being projected as a success story of GST and much of its credit is being attributed to the several system based measures. But the nerve – racking figures of GST fraud surely do not validate our claim of success in GST,’ the letter stated.