September sees spike in SGST revenue

The state had realised SGST revenue of Rs 3,916 crore in April, Rs 3,151.11 crore in May, Rs 3,230.8 crore in June, Rs 3,470.5 crore in July, and Rs 3,373.11 crore in August.

The figures indicate the state received the second highest income in revenue in absolute terms in September, after April.

The achievement can be credited to the steps by the commercial tax department for revenue mobilisation over the past two months using a software-based revenue tracker mechanism.

The department had mobilised Rs 25 crore from taxpayers who filed sale statements but missed monthly tax returns in the earlier months. It also collected Rs 30 crore as interest on late payments. Rs 52 crore for reversal of IGST credit by taxpayers. Another Rs 10 crore was collected from tax defaulters in the earlier month.

Explaining the steps taken for better performance, an official said, “Apart from direct revenue mobilisation measures, the state commercial taxes department took up the drive against fake registrations through a special software containing a mobile and web application. It has so far identified 1,800 bogus trading firms in its preliminary examination and suspended their GST accounts. The department has set October 15 as the deadline for identifying and verifying these accounts.”

Principal secretary Syed Ali Murtaza Rizvi, who took over as commissioner, had ordered the completion of the process by October 15. There are 5.33 lakh dealers who have registered for GST. Of which, those who have a turnover of above Rs 1.5 crore are around two lakh.

Of them, 50,000 dealers are under the purview of central GST and 1.5 lakh fall in the state GST network. For the past six to seven months, these firms were neglected leading to revenue losses. With the new commissioner focusing on this lacuna, the department brought in Rs 6,051 crore in revenue in August, an increase of Rs 552 crore from the corresponding month of last year, the official said.

So far, the officials have examined 700 dealers and suspended business activities of around 100 companies. They are investigating their purchases to verify input tax credits and steps are being taken to issue notices along with attaching their assets.

The state department has so far cancelled the maximum number of fake registrations in the country till date, preventing the leakage of revenue. The use of software has also minimised discretion in the hands of officers. Till date, 300 registrations have been cancelled and Rs 300 crore of input tax credit was blocked from being utilised by fraudulent tax payers.