BHUBANESWAR: Odisha registered a growth of 2.3 per cent in tax collection after implementation of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) in July this year. Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera said this while replying to a question from Saroj Kumar Samal (BJD) in the Assembly on Monday.
The Minister said collection from GST from July to October, 2017 was `3735.14 crore which is 2.3 per cent more than the corresponding period in the last financial year. In the pre-GST regime during 2016-17 fiscal, the State had collected `3,651.28 crore from July to October 2016, he said.He said the State collected VAT worth `4415.2 crore between July and October, 2017 from petrol, diesel, turbine fuel, natural gas, crude oil and liquor, which are out of the GST ambit. Behera said the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has paid `2934 crore to the State as the Central PSU did not make payment from December 2015 to July 2017. Though IOCL was collecting VAT during the period, it paid in September, 2017.
The Minister said as per the Goods and Services Tax (compensation to states) Act, 2017, the Centre will compensate the States for loss due to the introduction of GST. As per the provisions of the Act, tax collection in 2015-16 has been taken as base year and the annual growth rate of 14 per cent has been fixed.
Tax collection for 2017-18 has been projected at `14357.76 crore. Behera said the Centre has provided Odisha Government `1,020 crore on account of loss of tax after GST implementation. “The State has got `333 crore as compensation in July-August whereas `687 crore has already been sanctioned by the Centre for September-October,” he said.
Replying to a question, the Minister said the State Government has been demanding that the Centre should reduce GST on handicrafts. After the State raised the issue before the GST Council, GST rate on Sambalpuri saree has been reduced to 5 per cent, he said and added that 12 per cent tax rate continues on Sambalpuri sarees priced above `1,000.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to exempt handicraft products from GST, Behera said adding that he has also raised the issue in the GST Council meeting. “The GST council will take a decision on exempting GST on handicraft products,” he said.