GST(Goods and Services Tax)
For the third time in four months, GST (goods and services tax) collection surpassed Rs 1 trillion in April, setting a new record high. The mop-up increased by 10% from the previous year.The finance ministry reported a gross collection of Rs 1.13 trillion for the month. A surge in collection was noted notwithstanding the most recent rate rationalization in December.The CGST (central GST) made up Rs 21,163 crore of the total collected, followed by the SGST (state GST), Rs 28,801 crore, the IGST (integrated GST), which made up Rs 54,733 crore (including Rs 23,289 crore on import), and the cess, which made up Rs 9,168 crore (including Rs 1,053 crore on import).
CGST
The CGST was Rs. 47,533 crore and the SGST was Rs. 50,776 crore after the IGST and the remaining IGST were provisionally settled in a 50:50 ratio between the Center and states. The Union Budget’s CGST objective for 2019–20 is Rs 6.1 trillion.”The April collection shows that the tax base is gradually expanding, and that effective data mining and e-way bills are helping to stabilize the GST. The last date for claiming credit for 2017–18 sales overlaps with GST filings for March, therefore businesses may have pushed their vendors to declare sales of that year as well, according to Pratik Jain, partner at consultant PwC India. He believed that going forward, the monthly collection might be expected to routinely exceed Rs 1 trillion.
GSTN
Tax evasion could get tougher with the GST Network (GSTN, the levy’s information technology backbone) and the income-tax department getting into a formal understanding to facilitate the exchange of data.The total number of GSTR-3B or summary returns filed for March up to April 30 was 7.2 million. April GST collections at new high despite rate rationalisation in December M S Mani, partner at consultants Deloitte India, said if the collection trend continued, the target for 2019-20 would be achieved without resorting to other measures. “An increase of over 16 per cent on the annual average does indicate GST revenues have now stabilised,” he said.
In its December 2018 meeting, the GST Council cut rates on 23 goods and services, including movie tickets, TV and monitor screens and power banks, and exempted frozen and preserved vegetables from the levy. Last July, the tax on small screen TVs, refrigerators and washing machines was cut to 18 per cent from 28 per cent. In November 2017, the rates for 178 items, including detergents, shampoos and beauty products, were reduced from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. “The increase in GST collection, despite rate rationalisation, is a welcome upshot for Indian economy. The major reason could be reconciliation of returns and ledgers at the end of financial year 2018-19,” said Vishal Raheja, deputy general manager, Taxmann. Another reason could be computation of tax liability due to filing of annual returns for financial year 2017-18, where the due date is end-June 2019, he added.
The Business Standard, 2nd May 2019
