Mumbai, Jan 1: The offices of major Cryptocurrency service providers were being searched by Directorate General of GST Intelligence officials today across the country. According to ANI official sources have told the news agency that a massive tax evasion was detected by DGGI.
Earlier on Friday GST Mumbai East Commissionerate of Mumbai Zone detected a GST evasion worth ₹40.5 crores and recovered ₹49.20 crores in cash pertaining to GST evaded, interest and penalty from the cryptocurrency exchange WazirX.
The detection was made while investigating the business activities of the exchange, which is managed by Zanmai Labs Pvt. Ltd and cryptocurrency WRX is owned by Binance Investment Co. Ltd, Seychelles, as per a press release.
According to the release, this exchange provides an option to the trader to transact in rupee or WRX. The WRX have to be purchased from the WazirX platform. The Taxpayer is charging commission on each transaction in cryptocurrency from both buyer and seller both, it said.
“However, the rate of commission is different for both transactions. The transaction in rupee attracts the commission of 0.2 per cent and the transaction in WRX attracts the commission of 0.1 per cent,” added the release.
During the investigation, it came to notice that the taxpayer used to collect revenue from the commission as trading fees, deposit fees and withdrawal fees.
The taxpayer was paying GST only on commission earned in rupee but was not paying GST on commission earned in WRX. A GST at the rate of 18 per cent is applicable on these transaction fees. GST of Rs. 40.5 crores was not paid, which was paid along with interest and penalty on December 30. Total Rs. 49.2 crores have been recovered on the spot from the WazirX.
The officers of CGST Mumbai zone are investigating business transactions related to emerging economic spaces like e-commerce, online gaming, Non-Fungible Tokens to identify the areas of possible tax evasion.
“The CGST department will cover all the cryptocurrency exchanges falling in the Mumbai zone and will also intensify this drive in the coming days,” stated the release.
