oppn parties GST: A December of Joy

News Snippets

  • Calcutta HC says Cricket Association of Bengal is not liable to pay tax on advertisement inisde Eden Gardens cricket ground as it is not a 'public place' because it does not have unrestricted access for the general public
  • Supreme Court admits a plea from a child of a single OBC mother who had applied for an OBC certificate for her son
  • Supreme Court approves applying strict preventive detention laws for 'cybercriminals'
  • SBI likely to shift part of operations of its Global Market Unit from Kolkata to Mumbai
  • FM nirmala Sitharaman calls for a "structured, process-driven approach to compliance" and asks top I-T officials to speed up refunds and simplify processes
  • Marine insurance costs surge as the oil corridor in Strait of Homruz becomes risky due to war
  • Stocks weaken on Monday on global cues: sensex sheds 511 points to 81896 and Nifty 140 points to 24971
  • Former left-arm spinner Dilip Doshi dies in London at 77. He played for India in 33 Test matches and for Bengal in domestic tournaments
  • Pant becomes the only keeper to score two centuries in the same Test in England
  • England Test: Rishabh Pant hits his second ton and KL Rahul a classy century to put India on top, England need 350 runs on the last day, with the ptich showing signs of wear and tear
  • DGCA orders an audit of the entire aviation ecosystem in the wake of recent snags in many flights after the AI Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad
  • 2 Pahalgam residents arrested by NIA for sheltering and aiding 3 terrorists who killed civilian tourists in pahalgam tell the agency that there were 3 LeT ultras from Pakistan that carried out the attack
  • India unlikely to agree to US demands for lower tariffs on agri products and GM food, trade deal faces fresh hurdles
  • Stocks likely to plummet today as traders will be worried about the effect of US strike on iran, oil price rise and possible inflation. Foreign funds may also withdraw in the volatile global situation
  • Oil prices likely to shoot up as US strikes at iran and the latter decides to close the Strait of Homruz
US President Donald Trump unilaterally announces a 'ceasefire' between Israel & Iran
oppn parties
GST: A December of Joy

By Ashwini Agarwal
First publised on 2021-02-01 02:19:35

As the finance minister rises to present the Union Budget for 2021-22, the buoyancy in indirect tax collections in the last four months would give her a lot of leeway amidst the gloom of the pandemic and the shortfall in other targets set last year. GST collections and filings for December have broken all records with over Rs 1.20 lakh crore collected and over 90 lakh returns filed in the month.

While experts have pointed out that a part of it is due to the fact that more annual returns were filed and businesses squared up their yearly taxes, there can now be no denying the fact that the economy is reviving well and the government's efforts in simplifying GST processes, combined with big data analysis to prevent fraud and avoidance, has resulted in better compliance which has in turn improved collection.

Anything above Rs 1 lakh crore ensures that the Centre pays the dues of the states on time and development work is not delayed. But since the average collection of the last four months have been over Rs 1.10 lakh crore, the Centre has been in the position to clear back dues also. This is a very happy situation and confirms the faith the Centre showed in the solidity of the Indian economy. Since other economic indicators are also showing positivity, experts predict that the GST collections will be soaring for the next few months.

This also means that the much-criticized GST regime is now stabilizing. The government must watch the situation closely and bring petroleum products and liquor under the regime now to make it truly one India one tax regime. It has been analyzing the data from GST returns, IT returns and Customs and must redouble efforts to prevent fraud and leakage and improve collections further. Later, the GST Council must think about having just three slabs and no exemptions so that everyone has to file returns and cross verification of data is possible in each and every case.