Finance Minister Piyush Goyal yesterday exuded confidence that GST collections will exceed Rs 13 lakh crore in the current fiscal and with increased revenues there will be further scope to rationalise the tax rates.
He said with more number of people coming under the tax net, and successful implementation of eway bill system, there will be scope for rationalisation of tax slabs.
Under the four-tier Goods and Services Tax (GST), which was rolled out on July 1, 2017, taxes are levied in the brackets of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. On top of the highest tax bracket, a cess is levied on luxury, sin and demerit goods.
“I assure you that average monthly GST collection will cross Rs 1.10 lakh crore ... I feel more than Rs 13 lakh crore revenue will come from GST this fiscal,” Goyal said at the 'GST-Day' celebrations here.
In the first year of GST in 2017-18, the government earned Rs 7.41 lakh crore from the tax since its roll out in July. The average monthly collection was Rs 89,885 crore.
In the current fiscal, the collections in April touched a record Rs 1.03 lakh crore, followed by Rs 94,016 crore in May and Rs 95,610 crore in June.
He said historically the three month from April to June are lean periods of tax collection. In the earlier indirect tax regime 7.1% of taxes used to get collected in the three months. "So 94,000 crore collection is music to my ears," he said.
"The more people get into the honest and transparent system and with the success of e-way bill system, we will be in a better position to rationalise tax slabs. The different rate slabs were kept after considering the social structure of the nation.... Is it proper to tax luxury cars and items of common items used by poor people?" Goyal said.
GST collections rise to Rs 95,610 crore in June: Adhia
GST revenue mop-up rose to Rs 95,610 crore in the month of June, as against Rs 94,016 crore in the previous month, Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said yesterday.
In April 2018, the collections from Goods and Services Tax (GST) were over Rs 1.03 lakh crore.
“It's (Rs 1 lakh crore) not the norm still. We hope to bring it (GST revenue) to the level of Rs 1 lakh crore (every month),” Adhia said while addressing the GST-Day celebrations here.
He said the average monthly collection in the previous fiscal has been Rs 89,885 crore.