GST authorities have so far cancelled over 4,900 GST registrations and detected tax evasion of over Rs 15,000 crore during the ongoing two-month drive to weed out fake GSTINs which will end on July 15, a senior tax official said on Wednesday.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) member Shashank Priya said the large number of fake registrations unearthed during the drive underlines the need for policy changes to tighten Goods and Services tax (GST) registration and return filing process.

Over 69,600 GST Identification Numbers (GSTINs) have been selected for physical verification, of which 59,178 have been verified by field officers during the ongoing pan-India special drive.

"16,989 GSTINs are found to be non-existent. 11,015 GSTINs have been suspended and 4,972 have been cancelled," Priya said at Assocham's National Conclave on GST.

He further said tax evasion of Rs 15,035 crore has been detected and Rs 1,506 crore ITC has been blocked by tax officers since May 16. Around Rs 87 crore have been recovered.

"This shows that we need to plug the loopholes in registration and return filing... More refinement in the risk parameters for registration verification is required," Priya said.

Businesses that register under GST are provided a unique GSTIN which is required for claiming ITC and filing tax returns. Companies operating in multiple states are required to obtain GST identification number in respective states.

On trade facilitation front, Priya said monthly return form GSTR-3B will be made more trade friendly by providing additional fields to report more granular data.

The number of registered taxpayers in GST has more than doubled to 1.40 crore since the implementation of the tax regime six years ago.

The two-month long special drive to curb fake registration under GST, which began on May 16, will end on July 15.

Fake registration is a menace under GST as fraudsters wrongfully avail ITC by issuing fake invoices and defraud the exchequer.

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