Offence under GST
An offence is defined as a breach of a law or rule, i.e. an illegal act. Similarly an offence under GST is a breach of the provisions of the GST Act. There are 21 offences under GST, which we have classified under the following sections, for your easy reference:
Fake or Incorrect Invoices / Bills
A taxable person indulges in the following GST offences:
- Supplies any goods / services without any invoice or issues a false invoice
- Issues any invoice or bill without supply of goods and / or services in violation of the provisions of GST
- Issues invoices using the identification number i.e. GSTIN of another bona-fide taxable person
Fraud
A taxable person indulges in the following offence under GST:
- Submits false information while registering under GST
- Submits fake financial records or documents or files fake returns to evade taxes
- Does not provide information or provides false information during proceedings
Tax Evasion
A taxable person indulges in the following offences under GST:
- Collects GST, but does not submit it to the government within 3 months
- Collects GST by breaking the provisions, but fails to deposit it to the government within 3 months, which will still be treated as an offence under GST
- Obtains refund of any CGST / SGST by fraud
- Takes and / or utilizes ITC without actual receipt of goods and / or services
- Deliberately suppresses his sales to evade taxes
Supply or Transport of Goods
A taxable person indulges in the following offences in GST:
- Transports goods without proper documents
- Supplies or transports goods, which he knows will be confiscated
- Destroys or tampers goods which have been seized
Other offences under GST
A taxable person:
- Has not registered under GST although he is required to register under the law
- Does not deduct TDS or deducts less amount than what is applicable
- Does not collect TCS or collects less amount than what is applicable
- Takes or distributes input tax credit in violation of the rules, being an Input Service Distributor
- Obstructs the proper officer during his duty, for instance, during audit
- Does not maintain all the books that he is required to maintain under the law
- Destroys any kind of evidence
For all the 21 offences in GST listed above, penalty will be a minimum of INR 10,000, with variations in place, depending of the nature of the offence under GST.