UP's tax net shrinks 30% to Rs 8,169 cr in first three months of GST

Tac officials, however, remain hopeful of a turnaround; revision in GST rates to help increase tax collections

Tax collection under the new goods and services tax (GST) regime in Uttar Pradesh has fallen by 30 per cent in the July-September period in the financial year 2017-18, as compaed to the earlier tax regime in the corresponding period last year.

According to official data, the state’s net collection under the commercial tax system, now GST, stood at Rs 8,169 crore in the first three months of the new regime. The amount, when compared to last year’s standings at Rs 11,779 crore during the same period, reflects an over 30 percent drop in tax collection. 
 

In fact, when compared to the proposed target of Rs 14,887 crore under GST revenues, the current standing at Rs 8,169 crore indicates a sharper fall of up to 45 per cent.
 

However, the state’s tax officials are hopeful of a turnaround in the coming months, since traders would be more familiar with the new processes and requirements under GST, especially with regard to compliance and filings, among others.
 

The Yogi Adityanath-led UP government has, meanwhile, set a target of Rs 65,000 crore- expected to accrue from GST- in the current financial year. The proposed target is around 27 per cent higher than the previous year’s net tax collections of Rs 51,290 crore.

Since UP is primarily a consumer-centric state with a majority of goods being sourced from neighbouring states, it was projected that the state would gain heavily under the now three-months-old GST regime.

Additional gains under GST was expected to give the state the much-needed headroom for meeting its additional expenses, arising out of promises made during the run-up to the UP assembly polls and other expenditures on the development front.

 “Although effective tax rates on a majority of consumer items, especially those used by the economically marginalised as well as the middle-class, has dropped, yet we are confident of expanding our tax kitty, owing to better tax administration and the weeding out of tax evasions under GST,” the state’s additional chief secretary and principal secretary (entertainment and commercial tax) had told Business Standard on an earlier occasion.

Now, the Centre has further liberalised tax rates and compliance under GST conceding to a long-standing demand being pushed forward by the traders and small businesses operating in the country. This is further expected to spur tax collections by boosting economic activities and stoking demand for consumer goods, especially in the current festive season, which accounts for around 30-40 per cent of net sales clocked by most businesses.

GST is touted to be the biggest overhaul in the country’s taxation structure since independence, following the principle of one nation, one tax. All existing taxes were subsumed under the GST regime.

On May 16, the state assembly had unanimously passed the UP GST Bill 2017, a day after it was tabled the state’s CM- Yogi Adityanath.

In GST, any shortfall in tax revenue would be compensated by the Centre for the next five years. Petroleum and alcohol products, however, remain exempted from GST charges.