11 Indian Crypto Exchanges Evaded Around Crores Of GST, Says Government

Synopsis – In one of his statements, the founder of 5ireChain (blockchain ecosystem) Pratik Gauri said, that the Government is trying to find a foothold in understanding the various challenges it will face in implementation once regulations are in place.

On Monday the Government has initiated action against 11 CryptoCurrency exchanges, which included CoinSwitch Kuber and CoinDCX due to evasions of Rs 81.54 crore, confirmed Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State for Finance. Chaudhary in his written reply to the Lok Sabha said that the complete exchange stands at Rs 95.86 crore including penalty charges and interest. 

Also, according to the Government, it has been confirmed that there has been no collection of any data related to cryptocurrency exchanges. In one of his statements, the founder of 5ireChain (blockchain ecosystem) Pratik Gauri said, that the Government is trying to find a foothold in understanding the various challenges it will face in implementation once regulations are in place.

According to the Lok Sabha recovery of Rs. 17.1 crores has been done which also includes penalty and interests. Along with that, the case of an investigation of Rs 15.7 crore tax evasion on CoinDCX. 

In addition to all this, Buy Uncoin was also involved in the tax evasion of Rs 1.05 crore, and Rs 1.1 crore has been recovered. The line does not end here but CoinSwitch Kuber involved the tax evasion of Rs 13.76 crore, and recovery of Rs 16.07 crore was done.

As per the list which was revealed by the Government, WazirX parent Zanmai Labs Pvt. Ltd. was detected off the largest evasion of INR 40.51 Crores, and INR 49.18 Cr was recovered including the interests and penalties. Not only this year, back in December 2021 the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) department detected that there was a GST evasion of about 40.5 Crores at WazirX, which they earned on commission by the crypto exchange.

The commission said in a statement, 

During the investigation, it came to notice that the firm used to collect revenue from the commission as trading, deposit, and withdrawal fees. It was paying GST only on commission earned in rupee but was not paying GST on commission earned in WRX.

Talking about Cryptocurrency, its legal position is not clear till now, and with the absence of any law regulating it is very tough to get an actual hold on it. As of now the government’s tax proposals on cryptocurrencies, things have become good for the investors as it has effectively legalized crypto trading.