Nationwide drive turns up 10,000 fraud GST registration in week 1

Central and state goods and services tax officials have detected about 10,000 fake GST registrations in the first week of a joint drive. The officials are conducting door-to-door physical verification of addresses before initiating any action, people aware of details said.

“In the first week of the drive so far we have detected about 10,000 fake GST registrations,” a senior official told.

In many cases, officials found forged electricity bills, property tax receipts and rent agreements were used as proof of principal place of business to obtain GST registration.

The amount of fake input tax credit is yet to be ascertained. “It is premature to assess numbers so far but initial estimates suggest it to be above 25,000 crore,” the official said.