Faulty e-way bills help detect Rs 276 million worth of tax evasion

E-way bills were introduced for inter-state movement of goods worth more than Rs 50,000 from April 1, 2018, to track carriage of such items and detect goods and services tax (GST) evasion. It was introduced for intra-state movement in phases, and the system became mandatory across the country by the end of June. 

 

As the system is in its initial stages, the evasion detected by the e-way bill system is a very small proportion of the total evasion under the ambit of the GST. Of the evasion amounting to Rs 128 billion detected under the GST in 2018-19 to date, cases for violations of e-way bill rules amount to Rs 276 million. 

Tamil Nadu leads among states, with about half of the detected evasion amounting to Rs 132.5 million. In terms of the number of cases involving violations of e-way bill provisions, Gujarat, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh account for half of the cases detected across India. Surprisingly, a comparatively smaller state of Tripura comes second in the amount of tax evaded. 

While Tamil Nadu leads in tax evasion detection, the recovery is a paltry 15 per cent, according to the data by the finance ministry in the Parliament. 

Apart from e-way bills, a system which has not stabilised yet, intelligence-based enforcement and systematic analysis of data are the other methods being used by the government to tackle the evasion.

Source: Written reply in Parliament by MoS Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla