The Principal Chief advisor to West Bengal Chief minister, Amit Mitra, on Monday urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to call a GST Council meeting immediately to find a “timebound solution” to massive GST frauds.
In a letter written to Sitharaman, Mitra said, ”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.”
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 ₹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 ₹2,68,537 crore!!,” Mitra wrote in his letter.
He urged Sitharaman to take immediate corrective measures to put a check on the “massive laundering of public money” and said for that, if necessary, the entire GST ecosystem should be overhauled.
“In order to do this, I further urge you to call the full GST Council meeting immediately to exclusively deliberate upon the root causes of this massive fraud and find timebound solutions to this heinous menace,” Mitra added.