The most powerful GST Council may think about lowering GST on some items of common consumption if high tax collection continues till December, said by a Government Official.
The tax reduction could be either on items of common consumption or a cut in headline rate which will benefit consumers, said the official who did not wish to be identified.
The GST Council headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley could look at the aspect once the clear trend is available, the official said, adding that it would be evident from the November tax collection.
India’s maiden GST revenue mop-up got off to a strong start with the collection of Rs 92,283 crore in July from just 64.42 per cent of the total taxpayer base.
Of this, as much as Rs 14,894 crore has come in from the Central GST (CGST), Rs 22,722 crore from State GST (SGST), Rs 47,469 crore from Integrated GST (IGST) and Rs 7,198 crore from compensation cess levied on demerit and luxury goods.
July was the first month from which a unified Goods and Services Tax (GST) was implemented across the country, replacing more than a dozen central and state levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT. The collections are likely to go up further when all the tax payers file returns. The collections were higher than the finance ministry’s internal estimate of Rs 91,000 crore.
So far, 38.38 lakh taxpayers, accounting for 64.42 per cent of the total businesses who had registered in July, have filed returns. As per the registration, 59.57 lakh businesses should file return for July.
Amidst all these, the Government has extended the due date for filing GSTR 1, 2 and 3 to last week of September.
