New Delhi, Dec 12 (UNI) Around Rs 12,000 crore of tax evasion has been going on even with the E-way bill under Goods and Services Tax (GST), a top Union Finance Ministry official said on Wednesday.



"From April to November itself, from the current period, we have detected almost Rs 12,000 crore worth of GST evasion," said Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Member (budget) John Joseph in his inaugural address at Assocham National Seminar on GST here.



Dr Joseph, who is also Member (Investigation), however informed that almost Rs 8,000 crore has been recovered.



Adding that compliance issues in the GST is much-much serious, Dr Joseph said, "This is a huge evasion compared to what happened to in the central excise side or the service tax era."



Noting that it is merely 5-10 per cent people that spoil the name of entire industry, he impressed upon the need to improve the compliance mechanism.



He added that advance ruling is a real serious issue and the government is coming with some solutions.



"I do agree that industry is having serious problem with regards to advance ruling, we have been seeing that in the case of solar power. Currently we go through the entire thing, study the issue and then issue a clarification. Once the clarification is issued, the entire advance ruling thing becomes null and void," said Dr Joseph.



He further said that the industry will have to adjust to the situation till trust is being developed between the centre and the states, as it has only been one and a half years of GST.



On the dispute resolution issue, he said that there is a similar situation which is likely to prevail for some time. "We are all into solving this issue to a great extent."



He said that on the GST Network (GSTN) side, while most issues have been solved, new returns are going to come through as well. "In those returns, I can assure you, we are going to have a beta version initially, so that all of you have enough time to see whatever the problems, pain points in filing the return, going through the return or what can be done to improve the quality of the return."



"Things that happen in the past, may not happen this time," added Dr Joseph.



Amid others who addressed the ASSOCHAM seminar included Pratik Jain, chairman, ASSOCHAM National Council on Indirect Taxes and Puneel Bansal, managing partner, NITYA Tax Associates.

UNI SW ADG 1707