Central GST Falls Short Of Budget Estimate By 40% In April-November 

The Central Goods and Service Tax collection fell short of the budget estimate by nearly 40 percent during the April-November period of 2019-20, according to the data presented in Parliament on Monday.

The actual CGST collection during April-November stood at Rs 3,28 lakh crore while the budgeted estimate is of Rs 5.26 lakh crore for these months, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

The minister added that the data was, however, provisional.

In 2018-19, the actual CGST collection stood at Rs 4.57 lakh crore as against the provisional estimate of Rs 6.03 lakh crore for the year, he said.

In 2017-18, the CGST collection was Rs 2.03 lakh crore.

The minister said that as many as 999 cases were registered till October in the current fiscal for GST evasion and Rs 8,134.39 crore has been recovered.

During 2018-19, a total of Rs 19,395.26 crore were recovered (1,473 cases) and in 2017-18 the recovery was of Rs 757.81 crore (148 cases).

For strengthening monitoring tools to prevent GST evasion, emphasis has been laid on system based analytical tools and system-generated intelligence, Thakur said.

"In this connection, the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management has been set up by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. Further, E- way bill squads have been activated for the purposes of random verification of the goods in transit," he said.

The minister also informed the house that it has inserted a new CGST rule which puts restriction that the input tax credit availed by a taxpayer shall not exceed 20 percent of the eligible credit available in respect of invoices or debit notes.

The capping of ITC would lead to reduction in cases of fraudulent claims as well as increase in payment of tax through cash thereby boosting GST collection, Thakur said further.