Shimla: Himachal Pradesh GST revenue collection has increased by 44 per cent in the first four months of the current financial year. Commissioner, State Taxes and Excise, Yunus informed that the state has recorded GST collection of Rs. 472 crores in the month of July.
“The GST collections till July 31 reached 1,857 crores against Rs. 1,285 crores collected during the same period in the last financial year,” Yunus said.
The GST growth is partly the result of various policy and administrative measures taken by the Department of State Taxes and Excise to improve taxpayer compliances and strengthen enforcement-related activities. The second important reason for the growth is GST return-related relaxations provided in the first three months of the last financial year, Yunus further added.
The Dept has provided relaxations to mitigate the adverse economic impact of the second wave of Covid-19 had resulted in lesser GST collections during the first three months of 2021-22.
Excise Commissioner said that the department is targeting annual growth of around 25 per cent in the current financial year. Continuous improvement in return filing, speedy scrutiny of returns, timely completion of GST audits and strengthened enforcement continue to be focus areas for the department.
The department has verified 4.5 lakh e-way bills during road checkings conducted in the current financial year. It remains committed to improving voluntary compliance with time-bound redressal of the issues of the stakeholders under “Tax Haat Program”. It has also been organising workshops with the help of local vayopar mandals for increasing awareness of GST provisions among small and medium businesses. The department has also been focusing on capacity building of tax officers in order to strengthen their knowledge base. It has trained more than 350 tax officers in the last four months.
