Ahmedabad, Feb 6 : Gujarat State GST Department intercepted six vehicles transporting unaccounted pan masala and tobacco pouches in the Ahmedabad district on February 4, following it up with an investigation.

The raids, based on specific intelligence, led to the detection of 42.12 lakh unaccounted pouches, with an estimated GST evasion of over Rs 2.55 crore, officials informed on Thursday.

The department's efforts targeted the illegal movement of sensitive commodities, particularly goods transported without invoices, with faulty invoices, or with improper documentation.

Upon physical verification, officials uncovered a significant quantity of undeclared goods, reinforcing concerns over large-scale tax evasion in the pan masala and tobacco trade.

Legal proceedings are now underway to recover government revenue and penalise those responsible. Between the financial years 2021-22 and 2024-25 (up to October 31, 2024), central tax officers in Gujarat registered 12,803 cases of Goods and Services Tax (GST) evasion, leading to the arrest of 101 individuals under Section 69 of the CGST Act, 2017.

The state has witnessed a significant increase in GST evasion during this period. In the first seven months of FY 2024-25 alone (April to October 2024), evasion amounted to Rs 12,066.8 crore, surpassing the Rs 10,109.7 crore recorded in the entire FY 2023-24.

This marks a 515 per cent rise compared to the Rs 1,959.74 crore evasion reported in FY 2019-20. Despite these figures, recovery of the evaded taxes remains a challenge. Over the past four and a half years, only about 24 per cent (approximately Rs 9,557.22 crore) of the total evaded amount has been recovered.

Authorities attribute the rise in detected evasion cases to improved detection methods, policy amendments, and enhanced surveillance systems. Initiatives such as data analytics to monitor return filing patterns and the implementation of biometric verification linked to Aadhaar authentication for GST registrations are being employed to curb evasion.

/IANS