Telangana collects record Goods and Services Tax in January

HYDERABAD: The State has recovered from the initial hiccups of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and collected the highest GST of Rs 1,656.14 crore in January. When GST was rolled out in July, 2017, the collections in August, 2017 were just Rs 1,258.79 crore. “But, the highest collections are witnessed in December, which is collected in January, 2018,” according to Commercial Taxes principal secretary Somesh Kumar.

“The GST collections in the state are showing positive and upward trend. This trend will continue in the coming months too,” Kumar said and added that January 2018 was the best month for GST collections so far.When asked about the increase in GST revenue due to the reduction of taxes, Kumar said that the general perception was like that. The increase in tax revenue was just one month and they had to analyse the exact reasons for the record collections, he said.

Somesh Kumar said that recently they had issued notices to around 14,000 dealers who failed to pay taxes as per their returns. “Of which, 20 per cent of the dealers have so far paid the tax dues,” he said.
The Commercial Taxes principal secretary said that they had inspected 786 vehicles and detained 90 which evaded GST and collected Rs 1.19 crore.