Measures to curb tax evasion and fraudulent availing of input tax credit under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime will be discussed in the upcoming GST Council meeting on July 11, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Chairman Vivek Johri said Friday.

Tax evasion and fake entities were also the central focus of a review meeting chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in North Block on Friday.

Sitharaman asked tax officials to strengthen the GST registration process using technology to curb fake entities. Over 11,000 such registrations have been detected and action has been initiated against them in a two-month long drive against evasion which began May 16.

During the review meeting, also attended by Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra and CBIC Chairman Vivek Johri, Sitharaman was told about the methods being adopted by fraudsters including identity theft of people. “Smt @nsitharaman took note of the existing measures being undertaken by the ministry like OTP-based verification of Aadhaar and pilot of biometric-based Aadhaar authentication at the time of registration in high risk cases,” the finance minister’s office said in a tweet.

The GST Council will hold its 50th meeting on July 11. Since no major rate rationalisation is expected under GST before general elections next year, tax authorities have identified registration-linked frauds as one of the key focus areas for tighter scrutiny in the financial year 2023-24 and are carrying out a special investigation against GST fraud.

The GST Council in its upcoming meeting will also take up the report of the Group of Ministers on online gaming for discussion in the meeting, officials said. They added that a taxation change for cement is not expected to be discussed.

“We are thinking of some other measures and we will take them through the due process of the law committee and GST council,” Johri told reporters on the sidelines of a CII event.

During the drive, GST Network has identified 60,000 entities which could be having fake registration and for that central and state tax officers have initiated physical verification of the premises. “We have completed 43,000 verification. Of which 10,000 have been found to be bogus involving fake ITC claims of Rs 15,000 crore,” Johri added.

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The Council will also discuss the GoM report on online gaming, casinos and horse racing and will circulate it to the states soon. The GoM had submitted its report to the Council in December last year, but the Council has not taken it up for discussion so far.

The Finance Ministry is considering differential tax treatment for online gaming for the categories of games of chance and games of skill, with online games in the nature of betting or gambling likely to attract 28 per cent GST, while those which involve some amount of skill likely to be taxed at a lower 18 per cent. In its last meeting in November, the GoM had agreed on a 28 per cent GST on these segments. However, in absence of consensus on whether the tax should be levied on only the fees charged by the portal or the entire consideration, including the bet amount, received from participants, the GoM had decided to refer all suggestions to the GST Council for a final decision.