GST leads to formalisation of economy, widening of tax base, says govt
Under the GST regime, there will be now seamless flow of availability of common set of data to both the Centre and the states, making direct and indirect tax collections more effective, the government said
Under the GST regime, there will be now seamless flow of availability of common set of data to both the Centre and the states, making direct and indirect tax collections more effective, the government said. Introduction of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) has resulted in formalisation of the economy, it said. The statement added that the information flow would eventually augment not only the indirect tax collections but also direct tax collections. In the past, the Centre had little data on small manufacturers and consumption because the excise was imposed only at the manufacturing stage while the states had little data on the activities of local firms outside their borders, it said.
There are early signs of tax base expansion. Between June and July 2017, 6.6 lakh new agents, previously outside the tax net, sought GST registration, it said. This is expected to rise consistently as the incentives for formalisation increase. The entire textile chain is now brought under tax net. Further, a segment of land and real estate transactions has also been brought into tax net “works contracts, a statement issued by the Finance Ministry said.
"This in turn would allow for greater transparency and formalisation of cement, steel and other sales which earlier used to be outside the tax net. The formalisation will occur because builder will need documentation of these input purchases to claim tax credit," it said. "The introduction of GST is the biggest reform measure which is already creating more jobs in formal sector and eliminating transactions which are not recorded earlier in the books of accounts and thus were outside the tax net so far."
GST is designed to bring about better tax compliance and transparency in tax system, making difficult for those who are liable to pay tax to remain outside tax net, it said. A number of procedural changes have also been made since the roll-out of GST on July 1, 2017 in order to simplify the processes. An extensive exercise was undertaken for taxpayers education and facilitation by way of knowledge sharing, dissemination of information and replies to FAQs among others.
Further, steps are also being undertaken for further simplification in order to facilitate the tax payers and to extend benefit to the customers, the statement added.
03:41 PM IST