July 3, 2019
Bangla exceeds GST target for Mar 2019; State demands comprehensive paper
Finance Minister Dr Amit Mitra informed the State Assembly on Monday, July 1 that Bangla has exceeded the goods and services tax (GST) collection target of 14 per cent for the month of March (2019). This also happens to be one of the best in the country, further informed the minister.
While lauding the performance of the State Government, Dr Mitra said the government has also increased the expenditure on State development schemes from Rs 57,779 crore to Rs 71,113 crore.
Among the development schemes are several income-generation schemes too, and entrepreneurial ventures are also a steady contributor to the GST target.
n this context it needs to be mentioned that Dr Mitra, in a letter to the Union Finance Minister, has sought a comprehensive paper on GST, saying the indirect tax regime is plagued by numerous problems relating to structure, function and implementation.
The letter was sent on July 1, the day the goods and services tax regime completed two years of rollout.
In the letter, he has further requested that the paper be placed before the GST Council as a single agenda for collectively deciding upon the future course of action.
Among the issues raised in the letter are:
Demand for abolition of the slab of 28% on items other than sin goods and services
As far as practicable, most items be brought in the 12% tax category
Basic items of mass consumption be either exempted or brought under a lower tax rate
Failure to remove distortions in the rate structure, as a number of goods and services suffered inverted duty structure
Delayed refunds
Need for checking evasion of GST
