Tamil Nadu’s revenues have been “stronger than anticipated” under the Goods and Services Tax regime, according to D Jayakumar, Minister for Fisheries, Personnel and Administrative Reforms.
Addressing the 26th meeting of the GST Council in New Delhi, he said the State’s revenue was ₹ 14,305 crore through GST implemented from July 1, 2017.
In addition the Centre has set inter state revenue share at ₹ 6,346.94 crore for Tamil Nadu. It has paid an advance of ₹ 1,304 crore. The Minister urged the Centre to pay the balance before March 31, 2018, according to an official press release of his address at the Council meeting headed by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The Centre has also paid ₹ 632 crore as GST compensation as of February 2018.
There had been initial concerns that the implementation of destination-based GST system would affect revenues of manufacturing States like Tamil Nadu. It was because of this worry that Tamil Nadu had demanded the Centre compensate the State for GST loss for five years with an escalation of 14 per cent. But tax collections continue to be strong under GST, he said.
E-way bill
Tamil Nadu had implemented the e-way bill on February 1, 2018 but due to technical glitches on the GSTN portal it was put on hold. At the meeting today it was decided to implement e-way bill from April 1, 2018 for interstate trade. It will be rolled out in state wise for intrastate trade.
The Minister also requested that the VAT registration cancellation of traders who had failed to get GST registration numbers should be considered as a special case. They should be exempted from such cancellation, he said.
GST exexmptions
Over 84 requests for tax exemptions and reductions under GST have been represented to the Council since the shift to the new tax regime. Of this 38 requests from Tamil Nadu have been acted upon and reductions and GST cuts implemented.
In addition, the Minister urged the Council expedite action on similar requests relating to branded and non branded food products, unbranded bakery products, chit funds and a wide range of products and services.
The Council decided to put off implementation of reverse charge mechanism by a further six months to September 30, 2018, the release said.
It also discussed ways for a technology based system for grievance redressal mechanism to address issues relating to GST compliance.
Under the previous tax regime, in 2016-17 Tamil Nadu's revenue was Rs 67,576 crore including a VAT revenue of Rs 59,262 crore, according to official figures.