What are cognizable and non-cognizable offences under section 132 of CGST Act, 2017?

Solution:

As per section 132(5) of CGST Act, 2017, following offences are cognizable offences, provided amount of tax evaded or input tax credit wrongly availed/ utilised or refund wrongly taken exceeds ` 5 crores, namely:

1. Supply without issuance of invoice with the intention to evade tax
2. Issuance of any invoice/ bill without supply leading to wrongful availment/ utilisation of ITC or refund of tax
3. Availment of ITC using invoice/ bill against which no supplies have been made or fraudulent availment of ITC without any invoice or bill.
4. Failure to pay the amount collected as tax to the Government beyond a period of 3 months from the due date of payment.

Further, section 132(4) of CGST Act, 2017 provides that all offences specified under section 132 are non-cognizable offences except the cognizable offences specified as aforesaid.