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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the finance ministry’s focus is to include all businesses under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime and not just increase the revenue from the tax. The minister was speaking at an event to launch 12 GST Suvidha Kendras in Gujarat on Tuesday, aimed at facilitating business establishments to experience easy GST registration and help them resolve any such issues at such centres.
Talking about the progress of GST collection, Sitharaman said, “GST ‘one nation one tax’, collection is going up every year, every month. GST has brought tax rates down on many items compared to earlier times. Businessmen know that they are not going to be double taxed under GST which was the case earlier. GST collection is increasing because of it,” as reported by PTI.
The FinMin noted that many businesses still opt to stay out of the GST regime and are not included in the formal economy. “Why should they come in the tax net, not because they will pay me tax, but for the true strength of the economy… what we capture is only some and not entire… and formalization of economy can happen only when everybody is onboard,” she said.
Sitharaman added that being out of the formal economy is not beneficial for the country or the individuals. She stated, “You believe that you benefit by staying out…you don’t come in the net, you don’t get to be noticed, which is not true. Actually, you are losing out on potential buyers.”
As such, the minister called for an equal attention towards the collection of tax along with including more businesses in the tax ambit. “So from now on I would like equal attention for the collection of tax, numbers of which are going up every year and month.. yes we have to give care and focus to that… but equally our focus should be that more and more establishments and businesses are covered. The country should benefit from having a transparent tax regiment from which everybody benefits,” she added.
Sitharaman said that five people were awarded Rs 10 lakh each for uploading their paid GST bills on the government website, on the basis of a draw. She extended her congratulations to the winners and stated that every consumer should receive bills.
Notably, the GST revenue collection for October 2023 remained the second highest ever, after April 2023, at Rs 1.72 lakh crore.
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