SGST Collection of Gujarat sees Sluggish Growth

Source: dnaindia.com

The State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) collection in Gujarat for the first five months of the current fiscal year stood at ₹ 14,642 crore. Compared to last year’s SGST collection of ₹ 14,900 crores between April and August, the tax income for the current financial year looked almost stagnant, with a minor drop. Experts believe that if the tax revenue does not increase and meet the projection in the state budget, the state government will have to rely more on the central government to meet the shortcoming.

GST & VAT Collection for April – August

According to the data provided by the State Commercial Tax department, the net GST collection during April – August of 2019-20 stood at ₹ 14,642 crores while tax revenue from Value Added Tax (VAT) on goods not subsumed under GST was reported to be ₹ 8,827 crores. Furthermore, during the same period last year, the net GST revenue and VAT income was ₹ 14,900 crore and ₹ 9,200 crores respectively.

A senior official of the department said, “We have maintained the GST income of the last year.” The official also acknowledged the dip in income of VAT and attributed it to the settlement of a case of refund, where ‘a large sum was given as a refund’.

The state has received ₹ 1,100 crores in July and ₹ 840 crores in August as Integrated GST or IGST settlement. “Last year we got an average of about ₹ 400-500 crore per month as IGST settlement. On the basis of figures of IGST, we are hopeful that the final tally will rise,” added the official. Under GST, consuming states see an increase in tax revenues while manufacturing states might have to face decline. The official also informed, “Since Gujarat is a manufacturing state, our incomes are not rising as fast as other consuming states.”