Tax Buoyancy Is Not Much. We Need To Keep Watching

The man at the centre of the government’s mega tax reform, Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, shares with Dipak Mondal his experience of seeing through the one year of GST.

- Dipak Mondal

What kind of tax buoyancy have you seen because of GST? Experts say GST collection figures do not mean much unless the government comes out with relevant comparative figures. 

That comparative figure is given in Mr. (Arun) Jaitley’s blog. We have compared the nine-month (2017/18) GST collection with the pre-GST period. The growth rate is 12 per cent annualised. We have compared that with taxes subsumed within GST. The tax buoyancy is not much. We need to keep watching.

How has GST data helped boost direct tax collections? We hear that advance personal income tax collections in the first quarter have gone up 44 per cent. How much of that is due to GST?

It is difficult to ascertain how much of this growth is due to GST. But it is a result of all anti-black money measures that the government has taken, including GST. GST is also supposed to improve direct tax compliance.

GST would throw up enormous data. Does the government have the analytical capacity and the manpower to use it meaningfully? How do you think GST data would help in fight against black money? 

We have the capability. We have an entire company— GSTN—for that. So, whatever data analytics we want, they can produce it. But all this data analytics is to check tax evasion. We don’t share this data with anyone.

Reverse charge mechanism, tax collected at source (TCS), etc, have been getting postponed for quite some time. Why don’t you withdraw these provisions for good, giving some certainty to taxpayers?