Delhi Exceeds GST Target in October 2017

Acceptability and adherence of GST among the businesses is on a rise with an ever increasing tax base and the surging revenues. The capital of India saw a whopping increase of 23% in the taxation revenues in October’17 over October’16. That’s a big leap – good for the government and the economy overall. Delhi also surpassed the break-even for October’17 by hitting the Centre’s 14% aggregate growth target, which stands to a monthly revenue of Rs. 1,818 crores.

The GST provisions suggest, that if the states do not hit a monthly 14% aggregate growth, the Centre would set off the balance. However, Delhi tax payers seem to be well informed and is recording an average 25-30% growth each month since July’17, compared to the same months last year.

Delhi seems to be the first state to cross the GST targets and record a collection of Rs. 1818 crores for the first time. The collection figures for the trade and taxes department shot to Rs. 2364 crores for the month of October’17, which includes VAT of Rs. 500 crores coming from petrol and liquor. If this VAT collection is removed from the overall Rs. 2364 crores, Delhi still did hit the target.

Going by the figures, Delhi has become the first state to slide from negative to positive on the cumulative growth index chart. Though for July and August’17, Delhi was supported by Rs. 115 crores by the Central government as per the State Compensation provisions for not hitting the target. Trade and Taxes Commissioner of Delhi, H. Rajesh Prasad was quite optimistic about the days to come, with Delhi speedily heading towards more revenues.

There was a leap of 23% in October’17 [Rs. 2364 crores] as compared with October’16 [Rs. 1920 crores].

The cumulative collection of GST and VAT from petrol and liquor for July’17 was Rs. 2228 crores vs. Rs. 1880 crores for July’16, which is plus by 18.5%. For August’17 it was 2315 crores vs. Rs. 1705 crores, which is up by 35.74%. For September’17, it was even higher with a 38% rise with Rs. 2358 crores vs. Rs. 1699 crores in Sepetmber’16.

Mr. Prasad said, there are many elements which contribute to this speed. In the pre GST / VAT regime, the Service Tax collected in Delhi did not go the Delhi / State government. However, post GST, one more thick revenue pipeline has been added to it in the form of GST levies. The online mechanism of GST portal from GST Registrations to GST Returns, the robust and an analytical tracking mechanism of defaulters and tax evaders, making it a 100% online module with real time check and balances, have cumulatively added to such growth.

Mr. Prasad revealed that the State has not rolled any credits or refunds to the businesses since 1^st of July’17 and when done so, the collection average will shift a bit downwards. Delhi saw around 4 lakh businesses shifting from VAT to GST and around 1.77 lakh new GST payers. Mr. Prasad admits that there are yet many changes needed in GST to make it more seamless and easy to adopt.

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As reported in Times of India.