With common month-to-month gross Goods and Service Tax (GST) collections for the primary quarter of FY23 at Rs 1.51 trillion, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday mentioned month-to-month GST revenues will stay over Rs 1.4 trillion, reflecting its true income potential in a matter of 5 years.
“May-June are not brilliant months for tax collections, we still managed to get great collections. Within the five years, GST is showing what it is. The trend that was being talked about (not yielding expected revenues), we are now reversing that and showing that GST revenues remain above Rs 1.4 trillion, which seems to be rough bottom line. We are not going below that,” Sitharaman mentioned whereas addressing an occasion commemorating 5 years of the GST.
The month-to-month gross GST collections stood at Rs 1.68 trillion in April (highest ever), Rs 1.41 trillion in May and Rs 1.45 trillion in June. Average month-to-month collections stood at Rs 0.9 trillion in FY18, Rs 1.02 trillion in FY20 and Rs 1.23 trillion in FY22. Officials reckon that month-to-month GST collections might vary from Rs 1.4 trillion to Rs 1.5 trillion in FY23 as in opposition to price range estimate of Rs 1.2 trillion.
“While we were worried about collections drop during the pandemic, today we remember what we can show in a matter of five years. Of the five years, two years were pandemic with lockdowns at national level and state level, and then containment zones,” she mentioned, appreciating the efforts of tax discipline formations and measures taken to deal with technological challenges.
She mentioned the GST has eliminated discretion to a big extent. “Therefore, there is no rent seeking. We should even better perform in terms of removing even one little iota of discretion if it prevails anywhere,” she added.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”