The all powerful GST Council may consider lowering tax on items of
common consumption if the high trajectory of collections continues over
the next few months, an official said today.
The first-month
collection under the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime has been
encouraging and if the rising trend continues till December, it would
make a case for reduction of tax rate, he said.
The tax reduction
could be either on items of common consumption or a cut in headline rate
which will benefit consumers, said the official who did not wish to be
identified.
The GST Council headed by Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley could look at the aspect once the clear trend is available, the
official said, adding that it would be evident from the November tax
collection.
India's maiden GST revenue mop-up got off to a strong
start with the collection of Rs 92,283 crore in July from just 64.42 per
cent of the total taxpayer base.
Of this, as much as Rs 14,894
crore has come in from the Central GST (CGST), Rs 22,722 crore from
State GST (SGST), Rs 47,469 crore from Integrated GST (IGST) and Rs
7,198 crore from compensation cess levied on demerit and luxury goods.
July
was the first month from which a unified Goods and Services Tax (GST)
was implemented across the country, replacing more than a dozen central
and state levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT.
The collections are likely to go up further when all the tax payers file returns.
The collections were higher than the finance ministry's internal estimate of Rs 91,000 crore.
So
far, 38.38 lakh taxpayers, accounting for 64.42 per cent of the total
businesses who had registered in July, have filed returns. As per the
registration, 59.57 lakh businesses should file return for July.