49 percent GST growth in first two months of financial year

A spokesperson of State Taxes and Excise informed here today that the GST collection in the State has grown by 49 percent in the first two months of the current financial year with the collection of Rs. 390 crore in the month of May, 2022. The high growth is partly the result of various policy and administrative measures taken by the department to improve taxpayer compliances and strengthen enforcement related activities.

The spokesperson said that the second important reason for growth is GST return related relaxations provided in first three months of the last financial year. The relaxations provided to mitigate the adverse economic impact of second wave of COVID-19 had resulted into lesser GST collections during the comparative period in the previous year. The department is targeting an annual growth of around 25 percent in the current financial year. Continuous improvement in return filing, speedy scrutiny of returns, timely completion of GST audits and strengthened enforcement continue to be focus areas for the department.

The department has targeted to improve upon approximately 2.5 lakh eway bill verifications done in its road checking drive in the previous year. It remains committed to improve voluntary compliance with time bound redressal of the issues of the stakeholders under Tax Haat Program. The State Government has recently approved establishment of the GST training cell in the department for continuous capacity building of Tax officers. The implementation of the Departmental Restructuring principally approved by the State Cabinet alongside well trained tax officers are expected to help the department in achieving the revenue target.