With a Good April Show, FY19 GST Target Achievable, Says Report

Mumbai: With the GST collection in April crossing the Rs 1-trillion-mark, the FY19 target of Rs 12.9 trillion mop-up seems feasible, says a report.

Of the gross GST collection of Rs 1,03,458 crore in April, the CGST component stood at Rs 18,652 crore, SGST contributed Rs 25,704 crore, and the IGST component stood at Rs 50,548 crore, according to the finance ministry.

The GST mop-up in the entire fiscal 2018 (from July to March) stood at Rs 7.41 trillion and major 15 states budgeted around Rs 5.5 trillion.

The combined GST revenue estimated for FY19 would be at Rs 12.9 trillion or an average Rs 1.07 trillion a month.

"Going forward, with government introducing anti- evasion measures like TDS, TCS and credit matching, these could be hopeful of very good GST collection for FY19," SBI Research said in a report today.

For FY19, of all the 15 states, seven --Karnataka, Bengal, Haryana, Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand-- have projected their tax revenue growth to be lower than 14 per cent while rest have estimated a better tax collection.

The report said looking at the GST budgetary estimates for FY19 across the states, Gujarat, Karnataka, Bengal, Haryana and Bihar are highly depending on GST (share of GST to tax revenue is over 38 per cent) while for Andhra, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand it is less than 25 per cent and may rely on the other sources of revenue to meet their funds.

Apart from GST, there are other taxes like corporation taxes and stamps and registration fees contributing largely to state exchequer.

"We believe that to improve tax collection, the states should focus on to increase the tax-base, rather than imposing higher taxes on other sources," the report said.

It further said, state GST need some time to settle down, but with the increased tax base and better compliance, the revenue collection for the state will improve in next two to three years down the line.

It may give the states the much needed cushion to adjust taxes on other revenue sources to the advantage of consumer, the report said.