11 crypto exchanges found to have evaded taxes worth Rs 81 crore, made to cough up Rs 96 crore

Following the detection of tax evasion, the recovery process initiated by the cryptocurrency exchanges, including interest and penalty charges, has yielded Rs 95.86 crore, state finance minister Pankaj Chaudhary said on Monday.

Tax agencies have acted against 11 cryptocurrency exchanges, including big players like CoinDCX and CoinSwitch Kuber, for tax evasion to the tune of Rs 81.54 crore.

Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary on Monday said that following the detection of tax evasion, the recovery process initiated by the cryptocurrency exchanges, including interest and penalty charges, has yielded Rs 95.86 crore.

However, two months after the budget proposed a taxation policy for income from trading in virtual digital assets (VDAs), the government said it did not collect any data on cryptocurrency exchanges.

The junior finance minister informed the Lok Sabha that “a few cases of GST evasion by crypto exchanges had been detected by central GST formations”.

Providing details, Chaudhry said that 11 cryptocurrency exchanges were investigated by the GST authorities for tax evasions and the detection of Rs 81.54 crore of evasion has led to interest and penalty of Rs 95.86 crore.

CoinDCX -- a crypto service provider -- was found to have evaded Rs 15.7 crore tax during the investigation and had to cough up Rs 17.1 crore.

While another service provider, Buy Uncoin, was found to be involved in a Rs 1.05-crore tax evasion case and Rs 1.1 crore was recovered, the tax evasion detected in the case of CoinSwitch Kuber was worth Rs 13.76 and the recovery of Rs 16.07 crore.