Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sprung a pleasant surprise in parliament today when she came to the part on goods and services tax, or GST, in her Union Budget 2022 speech.
As she started speaking on GST, she drew attention of the members of the house to something that she said she came to know only this morning.
"I would bring in something which I got to know this morning, not part of my (Union Budget) speech but worth putting it here for the knowledge of the honorable members of the house," Ms Sitharaman said.
"The gross GST collections for the month of January 2022 is Rs 1,40,986 crore, which is the highest since the inception of GST. This has been possible due to rapid economic growth recovery post-Covid as well as policies undertaken by central and state tax administrations," the Finance Minister said.
To this announcement, the members of the house thumped on their desks in approval.
The provisional GST collection figures released yesterday by the Finance Minister said the gross GST revenue collected in January 2022 was Rs 1,38,394 crore. Today's figure was the updated figure.
Before breaking the news about the record GST collection, Ms Sitharaman read out from her Budget speech, "GST has been a landmark reform of Independent India showcasing the spirit of cooperative federalism. While aspirations were high, there were huge challenges too. These challenges were overcome deftly and painstakingly under the guidance and oversight of the GST council," the Finance Minister said.
"We can now take pride in a fully IT driven and progressive GST regime that has fulfilled the cherished dream of India as one market, one tax. There are still some challenges remaining and we aspire to meet them in the coming year. The right balance between facilitation and enforcement has engendered significantly better compliance. GST revenues are buoyant despite the pandemic," she said, after which she mentioned about the record GST collection, which is not part of her Budget speech.
She rejoined her official Budget speech in a few minutes, starting with, "...Taxpayers deserve applause for this growth. Not only did they adapt to the changes but enthusiastically contributed to the cause by paying taxes."
The GST came into force in July 2017.
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