GST concerns: PMO takes stock, discusses boosting collection with states

The Prime Minister’s office held a GST review meeting with state and central government officers on Friday. The meeting was held amidst the decline in GST collections, which has consistently remained below the asking rate.

The PMO raised several concerns in the meeting, according to sources. It identified 5-6 states where the collection figures were low and specifically asked the Chhattisgarh and Assam governments to ramp up return filing. 

The meeting also focused on how to ramp up overall collections and how to enhance enforcement activities. Fake credits and claims were also pointed out as an area of concern.

It was also suggested that the central government would deploy data analytics as a tool on a state-wise basis to zero in on problem areas.

The meeting participants also discussed ease of compliance, daily monitoring of return filing, ways to improve coordination between centre and states etc.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Rohan Shah of Tax Expert said, “In terms of the revenue anxiety, we must factor in the fact that the way in which the economy is the pace at which it is moving there is not enough economic activity to sustain tax collections that we had estimated. So the reality is the slowdown is impacting GST collections."

Pratik Jain of PwC said, “I don’t think tinkering with the rate right now is a good idea. I think there are too many challenges that the government has on the tax administration, the compliance, the new system that they are trying to implement or e-invoicing and all of that. I think they should agree on a complete moratorium on rate changes for next say one year or so and focus on the tax administrations as of now.”