Central GST falls short of budget estimate by 40 percent in Apr-Nov

The Central GST collection fell short of the budged estimate by nearly 40 per cent during the April-November period of 2019-20, according to the data presented in Parliament on Monday.

The actual CGST collection during April-November stood at Rs 3,28,365 crore while the budgeted estimate is of Rs 5,26,000 crore for these months, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

The minister added that the data was, however, provisional.

In 2018-19, the actual CGST collection stood at Rs 4,57,534 crore as against the provisional estimate of Rs 6,03,900 crore for the year, he said. In 2017-18, the CGST collection was Rs 2,03,261 crore.

The minister said that as many as 999 cases were registered till October in the current fiscal for GST evasion and Rs 8,134.39 crore has been recovered.

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During 2018-19, a total of Rs 19,395.26 crore were recovered (1473 cases) and in 2017-18 the recovery was of Rs 757.81 crore (148 cases).

For strengthening monitoring tools to prevent GST evasion, emphasis has been laid on system based analytical tools and system-generated intelligence, Thakur said.

"In this connection, the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management(DGARM) has been set up by the CBIC. Further, E- way bill squads have been activated for the purposes of random verification of the goods in transit," he said.

The minister also informed the house that it has inserted a new CGST rule which puts restriction that the input tax credit (ITC) availed by a taxpayer shall not exceed 20 per cent of the eligible credit available in respect of invoices or debit notes.

The capping of ITC would lead to a reduction in cases of fraudulent ITC availed as well as an increase in payment of tax through cash thereby boosting GST collection, Thakur said further. 

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