Over Rs 7 Lakh Crore GST Evasion Discovered in Five Years, with Rs 1.79 Lakh Crore in Fake ITC Claims

The field officers from the Central GST department have uncovered tax evasion worth around Rs 7.08 lakh crore over the past five years (from FY 2020-21 to FY 2024-25) in 91,370 cases. Out of this, about Rs 1.79 lakh crore involved fake claims of Input Tax Credit (ITC) in 44,938 cases. During this period, over Rs 1.29 lakh crore in tax was recovered by voluntary deposit. This information was shared in Parliament on Monday, August 4, 2025.

As per data shared by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in the Lok Sabha, in the financial year 2024-25, a total of 30,056 cases of GST evasion were detected. Out of these 15,283 cases, more than half were linked to ITC scams, involving tax evasion of around Rs 58,772 crore.

In the previous year, 2023-24, CGST field officers discovered GST evasion worth Rs 2.30 lakh crore, which included ITC fraud of Rs 36,374 crore.

In the financial year 2022-23, GST authorities detected GST evasion of around Rs 1.32 lakh crore, which included fake ITC claims of Rs 24,140 crore.

In the earlier years, Rs 73,238 crore was evaded in FY22, with ITC fraud of Rs 28,022 crore, and in FY21, GST evasion was Rs 49,384 crore, including Rs 31,233 crore in fake ITC claims.

As per Pankaj Chaudhary, the government and GSTN are taking steps to control tax evasion. Digital tools like e-invoicing, GST analytics, and system-flagged mismatches help detect tax evasion. They give useful insights, select returns for scrutiny, and choose high-risk taxpayers for audit.

In financial year 2024-25, the net collection of CGST was recorded at 96.7% of the Revised Estimates (RE), Chaudhary added while comparing the net CGST collection with the RE. However, the actual collection was more than Rs 10.26 lakh crore in FY25, below the revised estimate of Rs 10.62 lakh crore. On the other hand, in FY24, the net CGST collection was over Rs 9.57 crore, and the RE was over Rs 9.56 Lakh crore.