Govt improving GST evasion detection but recovery a problem: CAG report

Authorities were good at recovering amounts from medium firms but failed to pin down large and small ones.

A report tabled by India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) before Parliament on Wednesday admonished the government for being slow in implementing technology and simplified filing process for Goods and Services Tax (GST) as it said detecting evasion has improved.

Report No 1 of 2021 on “Indirect Taxes - Goods and Services Tax, Central Excise and Service Tax” said the amount of cases detected via anti-evasion activities had improved 72% between FY18 and FY19 from Rs 38,686 crore to Rs 66,507 crore; and 49% between Financial Year (FY) 2016-2017 and FY2017-2018.

“The Ministry attributed the significant increase in the number