By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: GST collections during October slipped by Rs 8,654 crore compared to the previous month, with the tax authorities laying the blame for the downward trend in collections on several factors including potential non-compliance and tax cuts implemented on several items. The finance ministry disclosed that total GST collections for October received until November 27 stand at Rs 83,346 crore. GST collections for the previous month were Rs 92,000 crore.
According to the government, three major factors contributed to the fall in GST revenues. Firstly, the system requires Integrated GST (IGST) collected upfront for interstate transactions including those within the same company. “There was an additional cash flow of IGST in the first three months. As and when the final transaction of these goods takes place, the credit for IGST is being utilised for payment of SGST and CGST and therefore, the inflow of new taxes is low.” The second factor is the steady reduction in overall incidence of taxation since the rollout in July, with the GST Council implementing far-reaching tax cuts. This, the statement acknowledged, “would naturally have some implication on the revenues of the government”.
The ministry also pointed out that with the tax administration of GST now based on self-declared tax return, there could be some non-compliance. “Since implementation of some of the main features of GST such as matching of returns, e-way bill as well as reverse charge mechanism has been postponed, tax compliance may not be up to the mark,” the ministry admitted. According to the statement, states have collected Rs 87,238 crore by way of SGST for August, September, October and November 2017 (as on November 27). The Centre’s collection of CGST stands at Rs 58,556 crore for the same four months.
States have also been released a total of Rs 45,703 crore from the IGST account to account for SGST paid using IGST. Another Rs 24,501 crore has been released as compensation for revenue shortfall to states, as stipulated in the GST Act.
Total GSTR 3B filing
The total number of GSTR 3B returns filed for the return periods July, August, September and October 2017 stand at 58.7 lakh, 58.9 lakh, 57.3 lakh and 50.1 lakh, respectively
