New Delhi: The government is likely to scale down the GST collection target for the current fiscal, 2019-20, from Rs 13.71 lakh crore set in the interim Budget on February 1 this year. It is expected that Nirmala Sitharaman-led Finance Ministry will take a call on the final figure in the full Budget to be presented on July 5.
A source in the Finance Ministry told Financial Chronicle: “We are hoping to set more realistic GST collection targets than the target set earlier in the interim Budget. Though the tax collection has been increasing significantly, we foresee a slightly lower target in the full Budget for this fiscal.”
The source said, “CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs) may pitch for a downward revision of the 2019-20 GST collection target of Rs 13.71 lakh crore for the full year’s Budget.”
Interestingly, the government had already scaled down the GST collection target by Rs 1 lakh crore last year, with the revised estimate for 2018-19 pegged at Rs 6.44 lakh crore as against the initial Budget target of Rs 7.44 lakh crore.
Out of the pegged Rs 6.44 lakh crore GST collections, the Centre was looking to collect CGST of Rs 5.04 lakh crore and IGST of Rs 50,000 crore.
In 2018-19, though the government met the combined GST target, the Centre’s GST mop-up fell short of the target outlined in the Budget. The Centre’s GST revenue is estimated to be less by around Rs 70,000 crore from the revised estimate for 2018-19.
