Section 132 - Punishment for certain offences of CGST ACT, 2017

            132. (1) Whoever commits any of the following offences, namely:—
                      (a) supplies any goods or services or both without issue of any invoice, in
violation of the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder, with the intention
to evade tax;
                      (b) issues any invoice or bill without supply of goods or services or both in
violation of the provisions of this Act, or the rules made thereunder leading to wrongful
availment or utilisation of input tax credit or refund of tax;

                    (c) avails input tax credit using such invoice or bill referred to in clause (b);
                    (d) collects any amount as tax but fails to pay the same to the Government
beyond a period of three months from the date on which such payment becomes due;
                    (e) evades tax, fraudulently avails input tax credit or fraudulently obtains refund
and where such offence is not covered under clauses (a) to (d);
                    (f) falsifies or substitutes financial records or produces fake accounts or
documents or furnishes any false information with an intention to evade payment of
tax due under this Act;
                    (g) obstructs or prevents any officer in the discharge of his duties under this
Act;
                    (h) acquires possession of, or in any way concerns himself in transporting,
removing, depositing, keeping, concealing, supplying, or purchasing or in any other
manner deals with, any goods which he knows or has reasons to believe are liable to
confiscation under this Act or the rules made thereunder;
                     (i) receives or is in any way concerned with the supply of, or in any other manner
deals with any supply of services which he knows or has reasons to believe are in
contravention of any provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder;
                    (j) tampers with or destroys any material evidence or documents;
                   (k) fails to supply any information which he is required to supply under this Act
or the rules made thereunder or (unless with a reasonable belief, the burden of proving
which shall be upon him, that the information supplied by him is true) supplies false
information; or
                   (l) attempts to commit, or abets the commission of any of the offences mentioned
in clauses (a) to (k) of this section,
shall be punishable––
                     (i) in cases where the amount of tax evaded or the amount of input tax credit
wrongly availed or utilised or the amount of refund wrongly taken exceeds five hundred
lakh rupees, with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years and with fine;
                      (ii) in cases where the amount of tax evaded or the amount of input tax credit
wrongly availed or utilised or the amount of refund wrongly taken exceeds two hundred
lakh rupees but does not exceed five hundred lakh rupees, with imprisonment for a
term which may extend to three years and with fine;
                       (iii) in the case of any other offence where the amount of tax evaded or the
amount of input tax credit wrongly availed or utilised or the amount of refund wrongly
taken exceeds one hundred lakh rupees but does not exceed two hundred lakh rupees,
with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year and with fine;
                      (iv) in cases where he commits or abets the commission of an offence specified
in clause (f) or clause (g) or clause (j), he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a
term which may extend to six months or with fine or with both.
                  (2) Where any person convicted of an offence under this section is again convicted of
an offence under this section, then, he shall be punishable for the second and for every
subsequent offence with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years and with
fine.
                 (3) The imprisonment referred to in clauses (i), (ii) and (iii) of sub-section (1) and
sub-section (2) shall, in the absence of special and adequate reasons to the contrary to be
recorded in the judgment of the Court, be for a term not less than six months.

                (4) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, all
offences under this Act, except the offences referred to in sub-section (5) shall be noncognizable
and bailable.
                 (5) The offences specified in clause (a) or clause (b) or clause (c) or clause (d) of
sub-section (1) and punishable under clause (i) of that sub-section shall be cognizable and
non-bailable.
           (6) A person shall not be prosecuted for any offence under this section except with the
previous sanction of the Commissioner.
              Explanation.— For the purposes of this section, the term “tax” shall include the
amount of tax evaded or the amount of input tax credit wrongly availed or utilised or refund
wrongly taken under the provisions of this Act, the State Goods and Services Tax Act, the
Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act or the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act
and cess levied under the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act.