The Narendra Modi-led government has made revenue collections of about Rs 94,700 crore from Goods and Services Tax (GST) till the last week as over 6 lakh businesses paid taxes and filed returns.
Reports had suggested last month that the collections under GST in July — the first month of its roll out — had exceeded the target, and the government had earned Rs 92,283 crore as 38.38 lakh businesses filed their returns.
The number of returns filed since then has shot up to 44 lakh and another Rs 2,500 crore has come in as taxes, a top official was quoted by the Economic Times as saying.
This number is expected to surge even more when the final returns are filed in GSTR 1, 2 and 3. The collections made till now are from the 74 percent of the total taxpayer base.
The government said earlier this week that businesses would now have more time to file the final GST returns as the Centre has extended the last date for filing of sales and purchase data as well as payment of taxes for the months of July and August to September 10.
However, 11 lakh businesses still have to complete the registration for GST. Around 72.5 lakh people have shifted to the new tax regime, but only 44 lakh have filed returns, according to Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the goods and services tax on July 1. It replaced multiple cascading taxes in the market. However, GST has led to confusion among the businesses and people.
Exporters in India wrote a formal letter to the Centre on Wednesday, asking for a complete exemption on payment of GST as the procedure to get reimbursement under the new tax regime is time-consuming and is leading to a capital crunch.
The manufacturing and services activities too have plunged after the GST rollout. Many railway projects in India, worth Rs 1 lakh crore, lost momentum or stopped since the rollout of the single tax regime.
