State GST collection registers increase of about 10 per cent: TV Somanathan

Speaking to DTNext, Somanathan, said, “Tamil Nadu is one of the best performers as far as GST is concerned. The state constantly registers a growth of around 9 to 10 percentage in collection of taxes.”

Even since the implementation of GST, in July 2017, there was an apprehension that the state might lose its own revenue from taxes as GST works on the principle of ‘One Country, One Tax.’ As the state government was robbed of its powers of imposing new taxes, it had to rely largely on the two components of GST for its revenue, the state GST or SGST and the integrated GST or IGST.

According to the state government, the total tax revenue in 2017-18 was Rs 73,825 crore and out of the total amount, the revenue from GST, both SGST and IGST, was Rs 37,897.25 crore. Since, April, last year, the GST collection had grown at the rate of close to 10 percentage and the official collection from GST, for the year 2018-19, would be known only after the end of the financial year.

The steady increase in collection of GST had paved way for increase in State’s Own Tax Revenue (SOTR) which saw a growth of 9.07 percentage in 2017-18 and is expected to exceed 14 percentage in 2018-18. Due to the increased in SOTR the Revenue Deficit (RD) of the state is expected to come down to Rs 14,315 crore against the projected RD of Rs 19,319 crore.

However, the state government is still in a resentment mode as it is yet to recover its due share from IGCT. The pending share of IGST for the state is Rs 5,454 crore and the assured GST compensation for the year 2017-18 is Rs 455.16 crore.