After the beginning of new tax regime- goods and services tax (GST), Gujarat government has said, the main reason of the revenue growth is stamp duty, electricity duty and vehicle tax as these taxes will help the Gujarat government to collect 18.5 percent more tax revenues in 2017-18. The government is expecting that the overall tax revenue collection of 2017-18 will be Rs 98,749 crores, much more than the revenue collection of 2016-17 that was Rs 83,278 crores.
The estimated release of revenue collection also includes the share of central taxes, which is around is Rs 20,782 crores. The revenue collection will see the growth of 10.34 percent as compared to the final figure of 2016-17 which was Rs 18,835.34 crore. Similar to this, state tax also expected to be rise from 21 percent to Rs 77,967.35 crore in 2017-18 from Rs 64,442 crore in 2016-17.
The Value added tax (VAT) which has been now replaced by GST, is said to be the main reason for the rise of revenue tax. The state government expects to collect State GST (SGST) revenue of Rs 25,000 crore during this current year. The total revenue collection is expected to be added up to Rs 56,114 crores of 56.86 percent in 2017-18. While the final figure from the 2016-17 year was Rs 46, 313 crores or 55.61 percent, coupled with the value-added tax on some items. The state will get another Rs 4,964.81 crore in form of Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST).
By the end of this year, stamp duty collection is also expected to be grown up by 22.78 percent, that is Rs 7,100 crores from Rs 5,782 crores. Besides from this, electricity collection is also expected to rise from Rs 5,833 crores to Rs 7,100 crores, which will be collected from households, industry and commercial entities. Vehicle tax collection will also grow by 32.28 percent, Rs 4,250 crores from Rs 3,212 crores of the 2016-17 year.
Although, the revenue collection is expected to be falling down in the year 2018-19, where VAT collection will fall from Rs 31,144 crores to Rs 20,783 crores. But the total GST collection is expected to rise by 70.94 percent to around Rs 51,219 crores. And if we combine both VAT and GST, the revenue collection, then the graph will rise up to 20 percent, or Rs 12,000 crores.
And from the next fiscal, the total revenue collection from stamp duty, electricity duty, and vehicle tax will be Rs 8,380 crores, Rs 8,129 crores and Rs 4,794 crores, with the rise of 18.03 percent, 14.5 percent, and 12.852 percent, respectively.
While the experts also attribute the rise in GST collection to the increase in tax base after the rollout of the new tax regime. Mahender Jethmalani, the economist at Patheya Budget Centre said, the rise in overall tax collection will allow the government to spend more in the social sector for the betterment of the public
Meanwhile, the President of Gujarat Sales Tax Bar Association, Varis Isani also said, “The dealers registered under GST are more than those under VAT. Moreover, implementation of e-Way Bill and Reverse Charge Mechanism from April 1, 2018, will also boost revenue collection.”
