NEW DELHI: Goods and Services Tax (GST) officials of the Mumbai zone have booked more than 625 tax evasion cases and detected evasion worth  ₹5,500 crore in the last five months, the finance ministry has said in a statement.

They have also recovered  ₹630 crore and arrested 48 people as part of this anti-evasion drive, the statement said.

“The CGST department is going to intensify the drive against fraudsters and tax evaders which are causing unfair competition with honest taxpayers and defrauding the government exchequer of its rightful revenue, in the coming days and months," as per the statement.

The ministry said the CGST Commissionerate in Navi Mumbai bust a fake tax credit racket and arrested its proprietor on Wednesday. The firm was allegedly engaged in availing and utilising fraudulent input tax credit on bogus invoices of  ₹60 crore. The firm is involved in trade of raw material and finished goods of aluminium and steel. Investigation showed that the taxpayer allegedly availed and passed on fake input tax credit from various non-existing or bogus firms, the statement said.

This was part of an anti-evasion drive launched by CGST, Mumbai Zone, against the fraudsters and tax evaders creating unhealthy competition for compliant taxpayers and defrauding the exchequer, the statement said. As part of this drive, the Navi Mumbai Commissionerate has detected tax evasion of  ₹425 crore and recovered  ₹20 crore and arrested 11 persons recently. The CGST Department is using data analysis to identify tax evaders, it said.