Page 15 - BANKING FINANCE MARCH 2024

ROUNDUP

and of Rs 10,000 or less for the finan- the sense that whatever were the crore to Central GST (CGST) and Rs
cial years from 2010-11 up to 2014-15. possibilities of evasion, I'm using this 37,257 crore to State GST (SGST) from
word, they've been plugged to a great the Integrated GST (IGST) collection.
Use of tech, AI aiding direct extent. So the taxpayer is expected to The GST collections data was released
not to resort to those methodologies
tax compliance, says CBDT (for evasion)," he said. a day earlier than the usual scheduled
date of 1st of every month because of
Chairman the presentation of the Union Budget
Around 44 lakh e-mails were sent to tax- January GST collections hit for financial year 2024-25 in Parlia-
payers in December for mismatches be- Rs. 1.72 lakh crore up ment on February 1. State-wise data
tween their declared income and finan- of the GST collections was not released
cial transactions based on technology- 10.4% y-o-y; second high- by the ministry this time as per the
based risk assessment, Central Board of est since rollout norm.
Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Nitin Gross Goods and Services Tax (GST)
Gupta said. With the use of technology, collections rose to Rs 1.72 lakh crore Indian economy to grow at
including artificial intelligence and in January (for sales in December), up 6.7% between FY24 to
changes in the law, the possibilities of tax 10.4 per cent from the year-ago pe-
evasion have been plugged to a great riod, data released by the Finance Min- FY31: CRISIL
extent and have helped in improving tax The Indian economy is expected to
istry showed. This is the second high-
compliance, Gupta said in a post-budget experience an average annual growth
est level of GST collections after the
interview to The Indian Express. rate of 6.7 per cent until the end of the
July 2017 rollout of the indirect tax
"New technology is used everywhere. regime and marks the third instance of decade, according to CRISIL's latest
We shot off around around 44 lakh collections over the Rs 1.7 lakh crore report. This growth rate is anticipated
emails in December to those (taxpay- mark in this financial year. The highest- for the fiscal years 2024 to 2031,
ers) where the returned income and ever monthly GST collection was re- slightly surpassing the pre-pandemic
financial transactions were having corded in April 2023 at Rs 1.87 lakh average of 6.6 per cent. The main con-
some sort of mismatch based on the crore. tributor to this growth trend would be
risk-assessment analysis. Just nudging capital, the report added.
"The gross GST revenue collected in the
the taxpayers that this is what we are
month of January, 2024 (till 05:00 PM This outcome stems from the
finding, please check whether you government's investment-oriented ap-
of 31.01.2024) is Rs 1,72,129 crore,
have rightly disclosed your income in which shows a 10.4% Year-o-Year (Y-oY) proach during a period when the pri-
the return of income," Gupta said.
growth over the revenue of Rs vate sector was hesitant to make in-
The higher buoyancy in direct tax rev- 155,922 crore collected in January vestments.
enue, as outlined in the Budget 2024- 2023 (till 05:00 PM on 31.01.2023)," The report noted that the government
25 presented recently, has come the ministry said in a statement. substantially elevated capital expendi-
mainly on the back of technology along
"Notably, this is the second highest ture to aid infrastructure development
with other measures being taken to
monthly collection ever and marks the and extended interest-free loans to
plug leakages, Gupta said. "There are third month in this financial year with states, reinforcing their own invest-
a multitude of factors. One is the use a collection of Rs 1.70 lakh crore or ment initiatives. It also states that fol-
of technology for the data which is lowing robust growth of 7.3 per cent
available with us, and its disclosure to more," it said. in the current fiscal year, there will be
the taxpayer through AIS (Annual In- With the latest print, GST revenue a moderation of 6.4 per cent in the
formation Statement), and then, we collections have averaged at Rs 1.67 upcoming financial year.
are prefilling returns we have also lakh crore per month during April-Janu-
done quicker processing, quicker issue ary 2023-24, up 11.6 per cent from the "There is also a need to monitor the
of refunds, there is better taxpayer monthly average of Rs 1.50 lakh crore impact of the escalation of the Middle
confidence in the tax department. seen during April-January 2022-23. The East conflict on energy and logistics
Changes have been made in the law in government has settled Rs 43,552 costs," it said.

14 | 2024 | MARCH | BANKING FINANCE