The government has collected goods and and service tax (GST) amount of Rs 50,000 crore so far with 20 lakh assessees having filed an interim tax returns on the GST Network as of Wednesday evening.
In addition, 28 lakh assessees have filled in the relevant details on the portal but are yet to file returns, senior government officials said. Of the total amount of Rs 50,000 crore, Rs 20,000 crore has come in as integrated GST, which is levied on interstate movement of goods. An amount of just over Rs 5,000 crore, an official said, had been paid by assessees by way of cess on demerit goods such as cars and tobacco. The remaining Rs 25,000 crore has come in as central GST and state GST, which would be split equally between the Centre and the states, government official explained.
The Rs 50,000 crore collected is a gross amount and the final amount in the government’s kitty would be smaller since there would be refunds for input tax credit, experts said.
With just two days to go before the extended deadline for filing summarised returns expires on August 25, only 23% of nearly 86 lakh registered taxpayers have filed so far.
Last Saturday, the government decided to extend the deadline for filing the interim summarised tax returns to August 25 from August 20 earlier, citing requests from taxpayers and difficulty experienced by states hit by floods.
This came after taxpayers and GST Suvidha providers (GSPs) — IT companies authorised to file returns on behalf of customers — complained the GSTN system wasn’t accepting the filings. Approximately 87 lakh taxpayers are understood to have registered on the GSTN portal as taxpayers. Of them, nearly 71 lakh businesses have migrated from earlier VAT, central excise or service tax regime, while 16 lakh new taxpayers too have registered with the portal.
Source: Financial Express
