After the massive tax evasion of GST by cryptocurrency service provider WazirX, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence has come down heavily on cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the country, said sources.
“Around half dozen offices of cryptocurrency service providers have been searched and massive Goods and Service Tax (GST) evasion has been detected by DGGI,” sources told ANI.
Crypto wallet and exchange are platforms where merchants and consumers can transact with digital assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, etc.
According to sources, around Rs. 70 crore worth of tax evasion has been detected during the crackdown on cryptocurrency trade by Mumbai CGST and DGGI.
“The DGGI is investigating CoinSwitch Kuber by M/s Bitcipher Labs LLP, CoinDCX by M/s Neblio Technologies Pvt. Ltd., BuyUCoin by M/S I Block Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and Unocoin by M/s Unocoin Technologies Pvt. Ltd,” sources said.
Official sources further said, “They are providing facilitation intermediary services for buying and selling of crypto coins. These services attract GST rate of duty of 18 percent which all of them have been evading.”
Another official source, who was part of this search, told ANI, “These service providers were charging a commission for their facilitation to indulge in exchange of bitcoins but were not paying GST tax. These transactions were intercepted by DGGI and they were confronted with evidence that proved non-payment of GST.”
A top source told ANI that they paid Rs. 30 crore and Rs. 40 crore as GST, interest, and penalty for non-compliance to the statutory provisions of GST law. For violating GST laws, the CBIC has recovered Rs. 70 crore from cryptocurrency service providers including WazirX.
On Friday, GST Mumbai East Commissionerate of Mumbai Zone detected GST evasion of Rs. 40.5 crore from cryptocurrency exchange WazirX and recovered Rs. 49.20 crore in cash pertaining to GST evaded, interest and penalty.
As per the claim made CoinDCX their crypto app allows buying of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies instantly in India and has more than 7.5 million users and more than one crore downloads with Rs. 7 billion cryptos purchased.
As per the website which CoinSwitch Kuber trading platform has processed over $5 billion (roughly Rs. 37,260 crore), BuyUcoin based out of Delhi-NCR in India has more than one million users and traded more than $800 million (roughly Rs. 5,960 crore).
Unocoin is also a platform to trade Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, among other such platforms of crypto assets has offices in Bangalore which have processed more than 10 million as per their website.
Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article.