CGST falls short by 40% of budgeted estimate in April-November

Source: hindustantimes

The Central GST mop-up fell short of the budget estimate by nearly 40% during the April-November period of 2019-20. The data presented by Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur to the Parliament on Monday showed that the actual CGST collection during Apr-Nov stood at ₹3,28,365 Crore while the budget estimate is ₹5,26,000 Crore for these months.

The minister added that the data was, however, provisional meaning that the actual CGST collection in 2018-19 stood at ₹4,57,534 Crore as against the provisional estimate of ₹6,03,900 Crore for the year. Furthermore, the CGST collection in 2017-18 stood at ₹2,03,261 Crore.

System based analytical tools to curb GST evasion

As many as 999 cases of GST evasion were registered till October in the current fiscal and ₹8,134.39 Crore has been recovered. A total of ₹19,398.26 Crore were recovered in 2018-19 from 1479 cases and the recovery amount in 2017-18 was ₹757.81 Crore from 148 cases. Thakur said that emphasis has been given on system based analytical tools and system-generated intelligence to strengthen monitoring tools that can help to prevent and curb GST evasion.

He added, “In this connection, the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM) has been set up by the CBIC. Further, e-way bill squads have been activated for the purposes of random verification of the goods in transit.”

The minister also informed the house of new CGST rule which restricts the taxpayer from availing the input tax credit (ITC) to 20% of the eligible credit available with respect to uploaded invoices or debit notes. Thakur further added that the move of capping the ITC is intended to reduce cases of availing false ITC as well as increase tax payment through cash hence boosting the GST collection.