PORVORIM: With measures taken for expenditure management, revenue augmentation and to plug its leakages, the Goa government is confident to sail through comfortably post the sunset of the five-year assured compensation for States under Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that the State has already requested GST Council for special support for smaller states from the Central Government.
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“However, with the growth in taxes coupled with intelligent monitoring through systemic interventions and measures being taken for expenditure management and revenue augmentation by the State, there is no question of any financial instability,” he said in reply in Goa Assembly to a calling attention motion tabled by Vasco MLA Krishna Salkar.
Sawant said that the State’s revenue loss since inception of GST can be pegged at 8.8 per cent from 2018 to 2021 and at 11 per cent for 2022.
Sawant brought to the notice of the house that the 5-year period quoted by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) in their report includes two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is an abnormal period in itself, and cannot be considered for analysis purpose.
Sawant said that the compensation was based on an assumed annual growth of 14 per cent of revenue on a year on year basis; however, the actual growth of taxes was around 7.5 per cent-8 per cent in the post GST regime due to the new system and the pandemic..
“Thus, the compensation received actually allowed the state to sail through the tough Covid times. The system has now stabilised and the period of 2021-22 and the first quarter of 2022 has shown a growth of more than 40 per cent in revenue of the Department consistently over the last 1.5 years,” he said.
For the current financial year from April to June, the total GST collection is Rs 1,389 cr.
The compensation amount of Rs 1,291 cr. for the year 2021-22 has alreay been received from the Center, he said.
