Maharashtra records GST-backed surge in revenues, state’s indirect tax collections rise 29% in April-June 2017

Maharashtra, a BJP-ruled state, has recorded a 29 percent jump in its total indirect tax collections from July to December 2017, according to a report in The Times of India. The state is home to largest tax base in country. Data from state Goods and Services Tax (GST) Commissioner say highest rise in indirect tax collections was at 51 percent in October 2017. Statistics released by the state GST Commissioner show that Maharashtra’s indirect tax collections were Rs 44,251 crore in July-December 2016 period when VAT was in force. The receipts rose to Rs 56,901 crore in the same period when GST came into force in 2017. [caption id=“attachment_4336443” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] With the arrival of GST, a number of indirect taxes levied by local bodies – that included octroi, local body tax, luxury tax and entertainment tax – were abrogated to make way for the new indirect tax regime. The state’s indirect tax revenues increased by Rs 12,650 crore which will come down after deduction of Rs 1,000 crore in State GST refunds to dealers. The government will also compensate local bodies for loss of revenue due to scrapping of octroi, VAT, LBT, entertainment tax and other taxes levied by civic authorities. The GST collections have been on a patch path since the ‘One Nation One tax’ system was rolled out in July 2017. The very first month saw a GST collection of Rs 94,000 crore. The revenue in the subsequent months started to dwindle. In December 2017, GST revenue went up to Rs 86,703 crore, as on 24 January, the finance ministry had said in a post on Twitter. GST receipts had slipped to Rs 80,808 crore in November from more than Rs 83,000 crore in October and over Rs 92,000 crore in September, according to a PTI report. As many as 56.30 lakh GSTR 3B returns have been filed for December, it said. For the composition dealers, for the July-September quarter, the last date of filing GSTR 4 Return was December 24, it said. A total of 8.10 lakh returns were filed by them amounting to Rs 335.86 crore, PTI said.