The government may announce steps to eliminate friction points in the economy for ensuring easy availability of funds to productive sectors and accelerate overall growth momentum. However, the strategy being worked out does not include proposal for reduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates as the government believes that taxes are already lower than in the past.
The government has fixed 7 percent GDP growth target for 2019-20 and data points of the first quarter are in line with that direction. Despite being an election period, GST collection jumped 9 percent in the first quarter while direct taxes surged by 12.9 percent, close to the growth in the same period last fiscal. Corporate tax collection has also remained stable during the quarter, with a growth rate of 13.3 percent. As far as GST revenue collection is concerned, the average mop-up has been over Rs 1 lakh crore during the quarter despite slowdown in industrial activities. The GST collections in April, 2019 jumped to its highest level of Rs 1.13 lakh crore since its roll out in 2017.
Gross GST collections stood at Rs 1.02 lakh crore in July, marginally up from the previous month. The July 2019 mop-up was, however, 5.8 percent higher than the Rs 96,483 crore collected in the same month last year. There is still a lot of scope for improvement in GST collections as more than six months are left for the fiscal to end. There is going to be thrust on improvement in compliance and collection efficiency by making tax process simple and predictable. With various initiatives being undertaken by the government, it is not difficult to attain the growth targets set in the Budget.
Start Research-backed Investing ...Now. Subscribe to Sapphire
MoneyWorks4Me is a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser (IA) dedicated to helping investors build long-term wealth through transparent, research-driven, conflict-free guidance. Founded in 2008, we started our journey as a Research Analyst (RA), providing deep fundamental analysis, intrinsic value insights, and long-term investing frameworks for Indian equities. In 2017, we transitioned to a full-fledged SEBI-registered Investment Adviser, strengthening our commitment to acting as a fiduciary—always putting the investor’s interest first.
To become India’s most trusted, research-powered fiduciary advisory platform—where every investor, regardless of experience, can make calm, confident, and well-reasoned investment decisions.
MoneyWorks4Me ensures this through: