Even if the GST collection for the whole year is more than INR 1 lakh crores, the economists are still in a puzzle to find out the credible economic recovery of the nation.
The government is however testifying this fact again and again that the economy is recovering at a very good pace but it is still not giving out the important statistics to solidify its claims.
Earlier in the year 2020 December, the government has released a bunch of figures including the GSTR 3B return filings and even the revenues with state wise break up, but now the story is not as it seemed.
As per a major economist, “With the current details available for GST, there cannot be any kind of analysis except to say the revenues went up or down.” And also said that the state’s tax revenue is based on GST with 65% collections.
Some of the major chief economists have been very confused on the GST collection part and also doubt the compliance as to how it has given a kick to the GST collections part.
The tax expert also added that “While incremental economic activity is part of the story, continuous improvements in compliance levels are a major factor according to the government itself. Ideally, we should have the information on compliance so as to assess trends better.”
KN Bala Gopal, Kerala Finance Minister, mentions that” Transparency is critical even for States to know the situation on the ground. If a transparent attitude is not there from the Centre, States will lose not only their rights, but they could lose financially as well if they are not able to check the situation.”
There were around 90 lakh GSTR 3B returns filed and a GST collection of INR 1.2 lakh crore, but now there is no word on the filing numbers of GSTR 3B. Another tax expert mentioned that “After the sharp uptick in January, the government has stopped disclosing compliance levels, but the Finance Minister’s statement talks about a 40%+ increase in the GST tax base to 12.8 million since then.”
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the fourth anniversary of GST mentioned that GST is sought to gain better figures due to the revised compliance and also revealed that now the tax base has touched 12.8 million from 6.6 million.