GST notwithstanding, State coffers swell

Hyderabad: Telangana State will retain its first position in revenue growth this year also, according to official sources. Though the tax collections had gone down post GST regime, Telangana registered an impressive 18 per cent growth in revenues in eight months till November, the sources said.

Thanks to the increased revenues from the sale of liquor and petroleum products, the government maintained steady growth in the revenues in the present financial year. Overall, the State government succeeded in achieving 18 per cent growth in revenues as against 17.82 per cent in the same period last year.

Officials of the State Finance Department said after the implementation of the GST from July 1 this year, tax collections from non-liquor and non-petroleum products had been decreased to 10 per cent from 14 per cent registered last year. The reason for the drop in revenues from the GST enlisted products was the non-compliances of traders under the new single tax structure. Out of 2.10 lakh registered GST traders, only 60 per cent of them filed returns. The trend in filing returns was not up to the expectations. As a result, revenues collected under the GST has come down below 14 per cent.

The other reason for the decline of tax collection was lowering the tax structure on some goods under the GST. However, increased revenues from liquor and petroleum sales compensated the revenue deficit from the GST tax collection. In all, the total revenues collected in 2015-16 was Rs 36,130 crore while in 2016-17 it is Rs 42,564 crore by achieving 17.81 per cent growth rate. This year, the total revenue will go up to Rs 50,000 crore with the increased revenues from non-GST goods.

The officials maintained that the GST system would be streamlined by next year and the revenue losses would be overcome by increasing compliances from trading community.