Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Spurt in GST collections brings cheer' that was published in Newsband

Spurt in GST collections brings cheer

There is some good news on the revenue front. Goods and services tax (GST) collections in the month of October crossed the ₹1 lakh crore mark. It is expected to be sustained in the coming months, supported by the festive season that is under way.

The increase in GST collections comes at a time when the Centre has been unable to control its spending in the run-up to the general election due by next summer. But all is not well on the revenue front. Tax revenues reached only 39.4% of the full-year target by the end of September. Many consumer-facing businesses reported lacklustre sales.

The current spurt may be simply owing to the festival season. It may also be too soon to say that GST collections are on a sustainable uptrend simply based on the October collections. The government should continue the effort to make the GST more taxpayer-friendly. While statistical data may show positive signs, ground reality of small businesspeople suffering should also be considered.

GST- a great movement was started by our government to help the country move more forward by eliminating the cascading taxes. In the beginning there were some issues related to that and government were unable to collect sufficient GST collection but now we are doing well, everything is happening in a proper way.

Our government is doing great effort to make the GST more taxpayer friendly and reduce the cost of the product and thus people find it easy to follow this step, and this is a good achievement for our country.  GST is a consumption based tax and hence higher collection during Ocober - both Dussehra and Diwali sales. If India is focused on ease of doing business ranking and also improving growth and thereby greater employment, we should reduce the slab rates and most importantly eliminate or reduce the cash transactions. Reduction of cash transactions will ensure that the turnover is not escaping assessment. The benefit of demonetisation has not been felt at all and the currency with public is slightly higher than the pre Nov 2016 levels. Definitive measures are required to sustain/improve tax collection so that further reduction/rationalisation can be achieved.

Higher collections could also be due to stablisation of GST processes, anti-evasion steps. Looking ahead, tax experts caution businesses to ensure that the GST audits are done carefully as there would now be pressure on the revenue authorities to continue with a base level monthly collection of ₹1 lakh crore and any errors would give them room to undertake enforcement actions.

This administration has done a lot to improve the economy and as well boost the country's image with the foreign investors - like ranking in "easy to do business with". So, let us hope the increased revenue is put to use for the future of the nation. It is a good news that the GST revenue has been escalated to an unprecedented scale - amounting to one lakh crore, but the revenue generated must be used in implementing something good, something productive for our youths like creating infrastructures for generating employment, universities, schools, in the field of poverty eradication program etc. to achieve sustainable development goals, not for erecting another massive statue worth crores of crores, to glorify our past neglecting the development of future.