CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, June 7: Jharkhand’s GST collection totalled to Rs 7,944.21 crore, which included state GST, Integrated GST settlement, and ‘ad-hoc settlement’ in FY21. The GST revenue has climbed by 22.14 percent to Rs 9703.12 crore in 2022.
The non-GST collection, which includes VAT, JPT, and JED, jumped from Rs 4555.98 crore to Rs 6037.61 crore during the same time. During the same period, the state’s GST compensation fell, but the state’s loan in lieu of the GST compensation deficiency climbed.
While addressing the media, CGST Ranchi Commissionerate Deepak Arora spoke highly of the GST collection done in Jharkhand.
“The GST collection is seeing an upward trend in Jharkhand and I am really happy about it. The compliance is surely up and people are paying tax as a result of which the collection has been better than the previous year,” he said.
The Commercial Taxes Department Secretary Aradhana Patnaik had earlier said that one of the primary reasons for the increase in tax collection happened to post the formation of the Intelligence and Revenue Analysis Unit (IRAU) streamlining the tax collections, especially GST. This unit had cross-checked the voluntary declaration of the tax liability and also did a sector-wise search. It had identified variations in tax liability as well.
Any state’s tax revenue is made up of two parts: the ‘State’s Share in Central Taxes,’ which is determined by the Centre’s devolution and the transfer of funds from the Finance Commission fund, and the ‘Own Tax Revenue,’ which includes commercial taxes, excise duty, transportation, and land revenue, among other things. In Jharkhand, commercial tax accounts for more than 70% of the state’s ‘Own Tax Revenue.’
Despite these, there have been instances where cases related to non-payment of GST have come up to the surface. The latest incident took place in August 2021 when around 19 firms from Jharkhand issued fake GST bills for Rs 294 crore and evaded around Rs 26.51 crore tax.
During the investigation, which was done by Central GST Department, it was found that a single email ID and a mobile number were used for the GST registration of several of these firms. The firms which got the benefits of ITC are located in Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
Officials had said they would take action against persons running the shell firms for a possible commission because the Act has punitive provisions and they would act accordingly following an inquiry.
