As the ongoing sales over the e-commerce platforms ahead of Independence Day, the GST collection by Goa has been revealed. Goa’s GST collection grew 25%, over a period of three years, namely from 2019-20 to 2022-2023, as per the state government.
The data was disclosed in the state legislative assembly, the GST revenue from e-commerce businesses has shown significant growth touching the mark of 16.8 crore in 2022-23, and the collection in 2019-20 was 13.4 crore. The government said that the GST collection this year from e-commerce platforms is 4.9 crore so far.
Statistics show that the GST revenue of the state acquired from e-commerce businesses fell drastically by 55 per cent during the Covid pandemic year 2020-21. After then it recovered the next year and made a significant recovery in revenue in 2022-23.
The government revealed that at present, there are 164 e-commerce businesses running in the state. Amazon, Zomato, and Flipkart are the big players and also, and there are also some tour and travel-based e-commerce companies such as Make My Trip, Clear Trip, Air BnB, etc., in the game. In this list, Goan Kart is the only e-commerce company that is Goa-based.
The Goa Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017, and the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 deal with e-commerce companies and their services. Moreover, under Section 52 of the Goa Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, it is mandatory for every e-commerce business to collect TCS at the rate of 1% on the aggregate value of taxable supplies made through e-commerce platforms by other suppliers. This is mentioned clearly in Form GSTR-7 and is brought to use when there is any scrutiny or assessment conducted to counter the verification of liability of the taxpayer, clarified by the government.
Responding to a LAQ question regarding whether tax collection from e-commerce is being traced in the state, the government said that e-commerce-generated sales made using portals are subject to tax. The commercial tax department detects and then scrutinizes the GST returns of risky taxpayers regularly to stop evasion. Additionally, there has not been any loss in revenue found so far in any field formations by e-commerce businesses.
Big players in e-commerce are expecting to see an upswing in income from Independence Day sales which will be ending on August 9. For buyers, there are various discount offers and deals available on smartphones, watches, electronic items, clothes, kitchen equipment, and many more. Many well-known stores and brands are giving discounts and offers on India’s 76th Independence Day.
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In the last year, 2022, e-commerce businesses sold goods worth 24,500 crores in just four days of the September festive season. During that season, companies sold 90 lakhs to one crore mobile phones, if we talk about units sold.
