Police investigations are already on into a batch of complaints related to alleged Goods and Services Tax (GST) registration fraud, even as Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan had on Wednesday pointed to fraud amounting to ₹1,100 crore and accused the State government of attempting to cover up the incident.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had informed the State Legislative Assembly during the current session that the police have received seven complaints pertaining to fake GST registrations created using the identification documents of a large number of people without their knowledge.
According to Mr. Vijayan, the police have registered cases and have launched an investigation. Mr. Vijayan’s disclosure in writing came in response to a September 16 unstarred question by Congress’s Roji M. John.
On Wednesday, the Leader of the Opposition had drawn attention to the scale of the racket, and accused the State government of failing to inform the victims. According to Mr. Satheesan, a single racket was involved in siphoning of ₹1,100 crore through transactions made under fake GST registrations made in the names of individuals without their knowledge. According to him, the fraud has also deprived the State government of ₹200 crore in GST revenues.
Repeating his charges on Thursday, Mr. Satheesan said the government had kept the incident under wraps for eight months.
The fraud, perpetrated during the 2024-25 fiscal, was detected by the GST Intellgince wing in Pune, who alerted the Kerala government in February 2025. The State government failed to initiate any other measures other than cancelling the registrations in question, he alleged. The State GST Department has not deigned to investigate who the perpetrators were nor informed the victims of the fraud, he had said.
In one instance, the fraud came to light when an individual in Ernakulam district sought to file his IT returns. It was then revealed that transactions amounting to ₹43 crore had been carried out in his name. He has lodged a complaint with the police. Other individuals have filed complaints with the police in Kottayam and approached the GST and Income Tax officials. No action has been taken so far, Mr. Satheesan said.
“Instead, GST officials are asking the victims to go to court,” he said, accusing the government of failing to provide legal protection to the victims. In addition to tax fraud, the incident also involves data theft. “That cases have been registered is not an adequate reply. There has been no probe into the thousands of fake GST registrations that have taken place,” Mr. Satheesan said.
Published – October 02, 2025 07:59 pm IST
