T.M. Thomas Isaac
| Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ. B

Any investigation into the alleged goods and services tax (GST) registration fraud cannot be confined to the Kerala government alone, as it must extend to the Central GST department as well, former Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has said.

Mr. Isaac, in a Facebook post on Saturday (October 4, 2025), was reacting to the charges levelled by Kerala Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan that the fraud amounted to ₹1,100 crore, and that a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was the need of the hour.

According to Mr. Isaac, any investigation should also extend to the Central GST department as only “half the accounts were being handled by the State government, while the other half was managed by the Centre.”

“The Opposition Leader says the Kerala government was alerted from Pune about the tax evasion. Which means, the links to the racket are strong there as well. So they also cannot be exempted from the investigation,” said Mr. Isaac.

“If it was the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Pune, that first unearthed the fraud, then the Central GST department should be the first to be investigated. They can easily take direct action,” he said.

Matter ‘serious’

At the same time, Mr. Isaac observed that the matter was “serious”, and called for stringent action. Kerala was the first to draw attention to this tax evasion and fake registrations, Mr. Isaac said. Cases had been registered and arrests made in 2020 in connection with tax evasion in the arecanut and plywood trades, he added.

In 2024, the Kerala’s GST department had unearthed fake invoices for ₹,1170 crore and tax evasion amounting to ₹209 crore through its ‘Operation Palm Tree,’ the former Minister said.

While stringent measures are needed to check such practices, it was, however, unfair to portray them as corruption by the State’s Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, Mr. Isaac said.

Published – October 04, 2025 12:03 pm IST