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The state government collected a sum of Rs 298.5 crore from its share of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Value Added Tax (VAT, excluding on liquor) in the month of January 2018.
Dipak M Bandekar, Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, said, “We collected Rs 116.78 crore as state government’s share of GST (SGST) and Rs 74.39 crore on account of inter-state GST (IGST) and an amount of Rs 107.3 crore on account of VAT (excluding on liquor) in January 2018. Put together, this amounts to Rs 298.47 crore.”
The comparable number of tax collections in January 2017 stood at Rs 290.92 crore. This means that the state government posted a marginal growth in tax collections in January 2018.
Bandekar said, “Typically, January is the best month for us in the year in terms of tax collections. The tax collections in January would have been higher if GST Council had not reduced GST rate on a number of products and services in November 2017.”
In November 2017, the GST Council had reduced GST on all restaurants to 5% except for those in luxury hotels. Prior to this move, GST rate was 18% for air-conditioned (AC) restaurants and 12% for non-AC restaurants. Considering that, Goa has a significant number of restaurants, this move has taken its toll on state’s tax revenue.
In fact even in the month of January 2018, the GST Council reduced tax rates on several items. Bandekar said, “The full impact of this reduction will be felt in March tax collections.”
Bandekar further informed, “The state government has received Rs 99 crore as compensation from the central government on account of compensation for lesser than expected growth in tax collections for the months of November and December, 2017.”
The tax collections of the state government should grow by 14% per annum each month between 2017-18 and 2016-17. The central government is supposed to compensate the state government if the latter’s tax collections don’t grow by 14%.
