As many as 11 crypto exchanges were found to have evaded Rs 81.54 crore in Goods & Services Tax (GST), according to a response tabled by Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State for Finance in the Parliament. The evasion was detected by the Central GST formations, the response added. WazirX, which is owned by Binance and considered to be one of the biggest crypto exchanges in India, was found to have had the biggest quantum of tax evasion among all exchanges at Rs. 40.51 crores, it revealed. When asked about the total number of crypto exchanges in India, MoS Finance said that the government does not collect data on crypto exchanges. The written response was submitted in reply to a question by Lok Sabha MP S. Ramalingam from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party. The response is notable because it comes ahead of April 1, 2022, when the country’s new tax regime for crypto will go into effect. It also provides a picture of how crypto exchanges have struggled to bring in tax compliance and have had to shell out crores in penalties and interest. What is the amount of recovery made by the Indian Government? The response disclosed that the authorities’ total recovery stands at Rs 95.86 crore which includes penalties and interest. It also revealed that Zanmai Labs, the company which manages WazirX, had to pay up Rs. 49.18 crore. In January this year, the company had said that it had been paying tens of crores worth of GST every…
