Finance Minister Atishi stated the plan of the state to strengthen its Goods and Services Tax (GST) administration, aiming for a faceless system.
“In the fiscal year 2023-24, the tax collection for GST and VAT until January 2024 witnessed a growth of 13.96 per cent, compared to the previous year (until January 2023), reaching Rs 31,445 crores,” she articulated.
“Now, the next step of the Kejriwal government is to make the IT infrastructure of GST state-of-the-art and the entire GST Tax administration faceless,” she said.
As per the Finance minister, the government was operating the data analytics and automation software in collaboration with IIT Hyderabad. It assists in tracking, monitoring, and facilitating the process of refund via AI and data analytics, apart from decreasing processing time and errors in files.
Even after a sluggish decrease in the estimate of the budget compared with the previous year, Atishi specified Delhi’s “unique” fiscal situation. She reveals the capability of the state to stay in financial surplus by furnishing free-of-cost facilities such as electricity, water, and bus rides to women.
Atishi disclosed information about the tax landscape, she expressed that Delhi has a total of 7.88 lakh GST taxpayers, with 4.82 lakh under the jurisdiction of the state government.
“The government conducted 167 special audits, resulting in the detection of a tax deficiency of Rs 5,321 crore. Additionally, field verification led to the suspension of 2,911 fake firms and the detection of tax evasion amounting to Rs 1,316 crore,” the minister articulated.
The budget estimates for 2024-25 assign Rs 6,400 crore to state excise revenue, with additional components accompanied with the stamps and registration (Rs 7,750 crore) and taxes on motor vehicles (Rs 3,600 crore).