PANJIM: The introduction of Good and Service Tax (GST) – the one nation, one tax regime – does not appear to have brought cheer to State coffers, at least not yet, as the collection of new taxes equivalent to the Value Added Tax (VAT) collected during the corresponding period last year, shows a 22 percent decline. The government expects GST to normalise from January, 2018.
GST was implemented across the country from July 1 and from then on an average of 70 percent of the registered tax payers cum traders have been paying taxes monthly. There are 21,000 tax payers registered with the Department of Commercial Taxes as of now.
As per available information, from July 1 till date, the department has earned revenue of total Rs 491.79 crore through GST (inclusive of VAT on petroleum), which is 22 percent less compared to the same period – July-September 201 – wherein an amount of Rs 628.27 crore on VAT was deposited with the State exchequer. The total shortfall is of Rs 136.48 crore.
“We are facing monthly shortfall of over Rs 40 crore compared to VAT collection. This is also because only 70 percent tax payers, on an average, are filing GST,” a senior official confirmed, admitting that the shortfall will continue for another three months.
Of the total Rs 491.79 crore earned by the State this year, Rs 208 crore is from State GST, Rs 147 crore is Central GST, Rs 132.66 crore is VAT on petroleum and Rs 4.13 crore is cess. The Integrated Goods and Service Tax (IGST), which is imposed on the items consumed by the State from another State, is yet to be added in the State kitty.
The department was not in position to provide monthly bifurcation of the GST collection for the current financial year.
On the other hand, the VAT collection during the same period in 2016 stood at Rs 224.40 crore in July, Rs 200.59 crore in August and Rs 203.28 crore in September. For the financial year 2016-17, the department’s collection was Rs 3100 crore.
“There is a provision, wherein in the first five years, Centre will compensate States if they fall short of revenue collection,” an official said adding that with the start of the tourism season, the revenue is expected to grow.
The official said that it is going to be short term pain to tax payers and the State but it will be a big gain in the long term.
“Any new system is bound to have challenges and GST is not excluded. It will take some time. So far, more than 100 issues have been resolved by the department,” the official explained.
The department’s enforcement mechanism to penalise defaulters is also not yet ready, following directions from the State government to be lenient towards the tax payer in the first six month.
