Former Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra has demanded a full GST council meeting to deliberate upon the massive fraud in the indirect tax system in the light of the latest revelation on input tax credit evasion.

Mitra referred to the Modi government’s own admission that a special drive against fake registration launched since mid-May 2023 has resulted in the detection of 29,273 bogus firms involved in suspected input tax credit evasion of Rs 44,015 crore.

Mitra shot off a letter to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, seeking a meeting to find ways to plug GST tax leakage.

Mitra, who often highlights GST issues by writing to FM Sitharaman, countered the Modi government’s claim that the introduction and roll out of India’s boldest indirect tax reform was a success.

The principal chief adviser to Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said the recent admission is not the first revelation and there have been at least two such instances. He argued that tax loss is hurting the states, who after all but relinquishing power to impose tax on goods and services, are now dependent on GST and, therefore, on the Centre, for the share of the tax revenue.

“States are largely dependent on the Centre for their share of revenue. Frauds of this magnitude which only speak of the kind of GST that is being implemented in India, is extremely agonising to the states,” Mitra wrote.