new delhi in order to check frivolous and fraudulent tax credit claims by businesses the cbec has decided to verify demands of top 50000 tax payers claiming maximum gst transitional credit starting with those where the quantum exceeds rs 25 lakhthe verification of unreasonable transitional credit claims would be conducted in four phases a source said adding that credit verification will remain one of the focus areas in 201819as part of transition to gst last july taxpayers were allowed to file form tran1 and avail tax credit on the basis of closing balance of the credit declared in the last return under the pregoods and services tax regimein order to check frivolous and fraudulent transitional credit claims the cbec has shared with field offices the list of 50000 taxpayers whose claims would be further scrutinisedit is suspected that some of these businesses might have obtained a registration under the gst only to claim transitional credit benefits the source addedin the first phase the tax officers will verify transitional credit claims where the growth is more than 25 per cent or the credit availed is in excess of rs 25 lakh this verification is to be completed by june and a status report has to be given to the central board of excise and customs cbec by july 10onethird of the remaining claims of 50000 taxpayers will be verified in three phases julyseptember octoberdecember and januarymarch 2019taxpayers who have claimed transitional tax credit of more than rs 25 lakh and have reported 25 per cent increase in such claims are also likely to be asked to submit a detailed statement of purchases during october 1 2016 to june 30 2017 the source saidaccording to revenue department data as much as rs 65000 crore of transitional input tax credit was claimed by businesses as on september 2017concerned over large claims for which there was no bonafide explanation the revenue department had asked taxpayers to revise their claim forms by december 27 2017 or face enforcement actionworried over huge claims the cbec conducted a preliminary scrutiny following which it has now decided to further verify the correctness of the transitional credit in a more focused and concerted manner the source saidhowever in a communication to the field formation the cbec said that efforts should be made on the basis of data already available with the department without contacting the taxpayerit further said wherever contact with taxpayers is absolutely essential it should be done with due cautionsummon should be issued only where the taxpayer is not sharing information even after repeated requests and lapse of an unreasonable period of time it saidamrg associated partner rajat mohan said the move comes amid disappointing tax collectionsa detailed verification of transitional credit for predecided 50000 gstin on all india basis comes as a no surprise credit verification would be a focus area in the new financial year and big data analytics would be of great aid mohan saidas per a finance ministry reply to the