Government loses Rs 26k crore in taxes to counterfeiting

Socio-economic impact of counterfeiting, smuggling and tax evasion has led to an estimated annual tax loss of Rs 26,190 crore to the government, a study conducted by industry chamber said.

The report, released by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and CASCADE (Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy), states that the overall annual sales loss to industry is said to be around Rs 1,00,000 crore.

The report was released by Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food supply and Distribution, KV Thomas.

The key sectors included in the study were Auto Components, Alcohol, Computer Hardware, FMCG (Personal Goods), FMCG Packaged Goods), Mobile Phones and Tobacco.

Highest revenue loss include sectors like Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), auto components, mobile phones as well as tobacco.

The maximum tax loss on account of smuggled and counterfeit products to government is from the tobacco sector at Rs 6,240 crore followed by FMCG (packaged food) at Rs 5,660 crore and FMCG (personal goods) at Rs 4,646 crore.

The highest loss to industry in terms of revenue is from FMCG (packaged goods) at Rs 20,378 crore (23.4%), FMCG (personal goods) at Rs 15,035 crore (25.9%), auto components at Rs 9,198 crore (29.6%), mobile phones at `9,042 crore (20.8%) and tobacco at Rs 8,965 crore (15.7%), it said.

The report also highlighted that tax arbitrage was one of the key contributors to the menace of smuggling and counterfeiting.


Keywords: business, business news, loses Rs 26k crore in taxes, Socio-economic impact, smuggling and tax evasion, annual tax, Federation of Indian Chambers, Fast Moving Consumer Goods , tax,