There is currently speculation that the government might miss its GST tax collection target for this fiscal. Against this backdrop, the Finance Ministry on Tuesday set a a Rs 1.1 lakh crore monthly Goods and Services Tax (GST) mop-up target for the remaining four months of 2019-20 financial year, ministry sources said.
Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey had a video conference meeting with top tax officials and impressed upon them to step up measures to achieve direct and indirect tax collection target, reported PTI.
Officers have been particularly urged to ensure that during field enforcement drive and visits, no taxpayer is overreached or troubled, the source said.
Incidentally, in FY19, the government had been unable to meet its fiscal target for GST collections. While the collections came in at a record 1.06 lakh crore, it was not enough to meet the government’s target for the fiscal year ended March 31, official data showed.
The Centre, which had upwardly revised fiscal deficit target to accommodate the cash-dole-out plan to farmers, was banking on its share of estimated GST collections of Rs 5.03 lakh crore out of about Rs 11.47 lakh crore in total mop-up for 2018-19.
The final numbers showed gross central GST coming in at Rs 4.25 lakh crore, about Rs 78,000 crore short of what the Centre was targeting.
In related news, on Monday, the Central Government had released GST compensation of Rs. 35,298 Crores to States and Union Territories.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday held the third round of consultations with stakeholder groups from industry, trade and services sectors.
The main areas of discussion included regulatory environment impacting private investment, measures for promotion of exports amid rising protectionist tendencies, industrial production, logistics, media and entertainment services, and IT and IT-enabled services.
(With inputs from agencies)
