Shimla, May 2 (IANS): The GST collection in April has recorded an increase of 19 per cent in Himachal Pradesh with a collection of Rs 593 crore, Commissioner of State Taxes and Excise Yunus said on Tuesday. The department had collected Rs 500 crore this month last year.

He said the department continued to focus on return monitoring, speedy scrutiny of returns, and timely completion of GST audits and capacity building of the tax officers in order to improve upon.

The department targeted verifications of 13 lakh e-way bills during the current financial year. During road checkings, 94,000 e-way bills were verified by the departmental and a penalty of Rs 42 lakh was collected in April.

He said the department has been focusing on fraudulent taxpayers and has detected a number of non-existing registrations. Strong action is being taken against fraudulent taxpayers.

The department recently conducted inspection of a few firms suspected to be involved in passing on fraudulent Input Tax Credit.

The department expects the data analysis capabilities to improve significantly, once it is able to implement a comprehensive 'GST Revenue Enhancement Project'.