The Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection has been increasing steadily on an annual basis since it was rolled out in July 2017, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday. Sitharaman noted that the average gross monthly collection in the current fiscal year so far stood at Rs 1.66 lakh crore.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, the Finance Minister noted that the GST collection breached the Rs 1.50 lakh crore mark in each month of the 2023-24 fiscal year and reached a record high of Rs 1.87 lakh crore in April 2023, reported PTI. “GST collection has been showing an upward trend on year-on-year basis since the implementation of GST w.e.f. 1st July, 2017… The average gross monthly GST collection in FY 2023-24 now stands at Rs 1.66 lakh crore and is 11 per cent more than that in the same period in the previous financial year,” she added.
Notably, the average monthly GST collection in 2022-23 stood at over Rs 1.50 lakh crore, against Rs 1.23 lakh crore in 2021-22. The average monthly collection in 2020-21 remained at Rs 94,734 crore.
Meanwhile, in response to a separate question, the Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, stated that the monthly average gross GST collection for the previous two fiscal years increased on a 30 per cent and 22 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth respectively. The minister stated, “GST is paid on self-assessment basis and tax administration at Central and State level is empowered to take action against cases where GST is not paid and short paid. Detection of such cases and recovery of taxes not paid or short paid is a continuous process.”
Further, Chaudhary said that the government has been introducing multiple reforms in GST on the recommendations of the GST Council and these measures would help improve compliance and raise the GST collection.
These reforms include structural changes such as the calibration of the GST rates for correcting inverted duty structure and pruning of exemptions, measures for boosting tax compliance like mandating e-way bill, ITC matching, mandating e-invoice, deployment of artificial intelligence and machine-based analytics, aadhaar authentication for registration, and calibrated action on non-filers, among others.
Further, Chaudhary stated that system-based analytical tools and system-generated red flag reports are also being shared with the central and state tax authorities to take action against tax evaders. In response to another question, the minister said that the central government has also established State Benches of the GST Appellate Tribunal at the suggestion of the Council.
Chaudhary informed that the number of pending appeals over tax demands raised by Central GST authorities stood at 14,897 as of October 31, 2023, higher than 11,899 appeals that remained pending as of March 31, 2023.
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