‘Enhanced GST revenue flow will be new normal’

In a message to tax officers on the fourth anniversary of historic tax reform GST, she said in the last four years the taxpayer base has almost doubled from 66.25 lakh to 1.28 crore.

She said “for eight months in a row, GST revenues have crossed Rs 1 lakh cr mark and we have seen record GST revenue collection of Rs 1.41 lakh cr in April 2021.” “Commendable work has been done in the year gone by both in the area of facilitation and enforcement with numerous cases of fraudulent dealers and ITC being registered. The enhanced revenue collection in recent months should now be the ‘’new normal’’,” Sitharaman said.

A nationwide GST, which subsumed 17 local levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT and 13 cesses, was rolled out on July 1, 2017.

Expressing satisfaction on overcoming most of the GST implementation challenges, including two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, the minister also thanked taxpayers for their support in making the goods and services tax (GST) a reality.“Its positive externalities such as unified market, removal of cascading and imp[roved competitiveness of goods and services has helped spur economic growth taking us further on the path to prosperity,” she said while commending both the central and state tax officers for making GST a success.