The Finance Ministry on Tuesday informed the Parliament the tax officials detected tax frauds worth Rs 37,946 crore in the financial year 2018-19 and Rs 6,520 crore in the April-June 2019 period after the implementation of GST (goods and service tax) regime.

The Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha also informed that the cases of availing tax credit by issuing fake invoices were of Rs 11,251 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 2,805 crore in April-June 2019.

In the first year of GST implementation, only 5 cases of tax credit availment by fake invoicing were detected by Central GST formations involving an amount of Rs 12.67 crore. Two persons were arrested.

In 2018-19, 1,620 cases of fake invoicing were detected involving Rs 11,251.23 crore, and 154 persons were arrested.

Between April-June of 2019-20, 666 cases of fake invoicing were detected and the amount involved stood at Rs 2,804.98 crore. A total of 41 persons were arrested.

Thakur said the tax officers have taken various measures to curtail this type of fraud, and field formations of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) are sensitised to keep a check on these kinds of activities and take necessary action.

"A specialised directorate within the CBIC engaged in Data Analytics and Risk Management disseminates analytical reports and intelligence inputs to field formations of CBIC for the purpose of scrutiny, audit and enforcement, to check GST evasion in general and fraudulent credit availment in particular," he added.