GST dealer verification drive to begin in Odisha from tomorrow

Bhubaneswar, July 15: During the course of undertaking enforcement activities, Commissionerate of CT & GST is detecting fake taxpayers from time to time who are engaging in unscrupulous activities by generating/ passing or availing fake credit with the help of fake invoices. The enforcement wing has so far detected a number of cases and arrested 18 masterminds who are involved in generation/ passing and availment of fake ITC worth Rs 900 crore through 129 fake firms. Since the advent of GST till June 2021, nearly 2 lakh new registrations have come into the GST tax fold. Although many of such registrations are genuine taxpayers doing business, some fake dealers also try to take registration to generate/ pass on fake credit. CT & GST Organization is constantly on the alert and is routinely enquiring into the business activities of the dealer either before taking registration (in case of the taxpayer failing to submit his Aaadhar card) or post-registration. During the last financial year, the registration of 24,000 fake / non-compliant taxpayers has been cancelled based on enquiry after field verification. Similarly, nearly 1400 cancellations have been made in the first quarter of this FY 2021-22. In order to fast forward this process of verification, a special drive for post-registration enquiry is being conducted from July 16 to September 15 to ensure that at least all cases of registration granted during April 2020 to June 2021. In this regard, a workshop was conducted through video conferencing with all field functionaries under the Chairmanship of Commissioner of CT & GST, Sushil Kumar Lohani. A Standard Operating Procedure has been developed and shared with all field offices to conduct the drive. Each Circle has also submitted a detailed plan for conducting the drive and will be submitting regular progress report to the head office. During the drive, the tax officials will check the genuineness of the place of business and verification of mandated documents including books of account. Any dealer found to be suspicious will be given show-cause notice to present their case before cancellation.