The Finance Ministry on Friday said GST field formations have cancelled registration of over 1.63 lakh assessees during October and November on account of not filing GST returns for the last six months. The assessees were allegedly running fake firms.

Nationwide drive

Meanwhile, within one month of the nationwide drive launched in the second week of November against GST fake invoice frauds, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) and CGST Commissionerates have so far arrested 132 persons including four chartered accountants and a woman for availing themselves of or passing on ineligible ITC fraudulently and have booked 1,430 cases against more than 4,586 fake GSTIN entities identified across the country.

Sources in the Tax Department said one chartered accountant Akshay Jain, was arrested from Visakhapatnam for issuing fake ITC to the tune of ₹20.97 crore on the invoices of cement companies by creating 14 fake firms without supply of goods. Further investigations are on.

Sources said all the GSTIN entities that had not filed their GSTR-3B returns for more than six months were first issued cancellation notices and then their registrations were cancelled as per SOP. Also, out of 720 deemed registrations granted between August 21, 2020 to November 16, 2020 where Aadhaar authentication was not done, 55 deemed registrations have been identified for discrepancy and the process of cancellation was initiated in these cases.

Not filing returns

Sources said 28,635 taxpayers who have not filed their GSTR-3B returns for more than 6 months as on December 1 were identified and all the GST Commissionerates have been directed to initiate suo-moto cancellation process in these cases. In Ahmedabad zone, a total of 11,048 GST registrations were cancelled and in Chennai zone, 19,586 suo-moto cancellations have been done so far in respect of GST taxpayers who have failed to file returns for more than six months.

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