STATE EARNINGS IN TAX
JUNE 2018
>> Rs 281.5 crore as compared to Rs 275.56 crore in June 2017
JULY 2018
>> At Rs 243.83 crore as against Rs 272.94 crore in July 2017
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FLAT NUMBERS
IN JULY 2018
>> Many traders had cleared stocks last year in June just before the roll-out of GST
>> This had led to sudden growth in July 2017’s tax collections
>> Otherwise, July 2018 is flat compared to collections in the previous year
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CENTRE & STATE
UNDERSTANDING
If Goa is unable to grow its tax collections by 14% year-on-year for a certain month, then the Centre is supposed to compensate to the extent of shortfall
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PANAJI: The State government expects to receive Rs 182 crore from the central government on account of its shortfall in tax collections for the months of June and July. This was confirmed by Dipak M Bandekar, Commissioner of Commercial Taxes.
Bandekar said, “As per our calculations, we should be getting Rs 182 crore as compensation from the central government for June and July.”
Based on the understanding between the Centre and state, if the latter is unable to grow its tax collections by 14% year-on-year for a certain month, then the former is supposed to compensate it to the extent of shortfall.
For many months now, Goa government is finding it difficult to grow its tax collections primarily due to several reductions on GST announced by the GST Council.
Bandekar said, “If we include state government’s share of GST (SGST), inter-state GST (IGST) and value-added-tax (VAT) on petroleum and liquor, we earned Rs 281.5 crore in June 2018 compared to Rs 275.56 crore in June 2017. In July 2018, our tax collections stood at Rs 243.83 crore vis-a-vis Rs 272.94 crore in July 2017.”
Bandekar further clarified that there was a spike in tax collections in July 2017 and therefore tax collections in July 2018 appear lower.
He said, “A lot of traders had cleared stocks last year in June just before the roll-out of GST, which had led to sudden growth in July 2017’s tax collections. Otherwise, July 2018 is flat compared to previous year’s number.”
In its July 2018 meeting, the GST Council had slashed tax rates on a number of products including washing machines, fridges, vacuum cleaners, paints, ethanol, etc. The Goan Everyday had reported that these tax cuts were expected to cost the state exchequer Rs 7 crore to Rs 10 crore per month in terms of loss to tax collections.
