Amid growing concerns over tax evasion under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, the Group of Ministers (GoM) on revenue analysis met on Friday to discuss state-wise revenue trends and enforcement strategies.
The meeting, chaired by Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, brought together finance ministers from several states to exchange insights on tax leakages and coordinate efforts to curb fraudulent practices.
“States held detailed discussions on revenue trends and GST collections. Tax evasion was a major focus, and many states shared their actions and experiences in tackling it,” said Pramod Sawant after the meeting.
Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, who is a member of the GoM, flagged what he termed a “massive” scale of input tax credit (ITC) fraud occurring across the country. “Nearly ₹2 lakh crore of ITC fraud is happening in the country. All states discussed and proposed various measures to control it,” he said.
Cheema added that the next GoM meeting is likely to finalise concrete recommendations for stronger enforcement, which will then be presented to the GST Council.
These may include tighter scrutiny, data integration between states and enhanced use of analytics to detect anomalies, sources present in the meeting added.
Cheema, on being asked about the report formulated by the GoM on life and health insurance, said that there has been no further meeting of the GoM on health and life insurance.
“The common man will get relief only when the GoM submits its report to the GST Council,” Cheema said, urging Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to convene the next Council meeting soon to act on pending issues.
The GST GoM on revenue analysis was constituted to evaluate trends in state revenues and suggest policy and administrative measures to improve tax compliance. With GST collections consistently crossing the ₹1.8 lakh crore mark in recent months, the focus has now shifted towards curbing evasion and misuse of input credits.
States have reportedly proposed the use of technology-driven solutions like AI-enabled monitoring tools, stricter invoice matching, and state-wise enforcement coordination to address fake invoicing and bogus ITC claims.
At the next GoM meeting, members are expected to solidify a unified strategy to deal with GST evasion, potentially marking a significant step toward enhancing the credibility and efficiency of India’s indirect tax system.
The GST Council, in the 55th meeting held on December 21, 2024 at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, decided that the GoM on Analysis of Revenue from GST may be reconstituted with revised terms of reference. Based on this, the office of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council, in a memorandum issued on March 3, 2025, appointed Sawant as the convenor.
The other members of the committee include Samrat Chaudhary (deputy chief minister of Bihar), Om Prakash Choudhary (Chhattisgarh finance minister), Kanubhai Desai (Gujarat finance and energy minister), Payyavula Keshav (Andhra Pradesh minister for finance, planning, commercial taxes and legislative), Ajit Pawar (Maharashtra Dy CM and finance minister), Harpal Singh Cheema (Punjab finance minister), Thangam Thennarasu (Tamil Nadu finance and human resources management minister) and Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka (Telangana finance and planning minister).
Today’s meeting was attended physically by Pramod Sawant, Harpal Singh Cheema and representatives from Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. Other member states had joined the meeting via VC.
