Tamil Nadu sees highest growth in GST collections among comparable States in first half of 2024-25

Tamil Nadu’s SGST collection grew 20.12% to ₹35,414.05 crore in the first half of the year 2024-25 from ₹29,481.97 crore in the comparable period last year

Tamil Nadu has seen a 20.12% growth in State Goods and Services Tax Collections (SGST) in the first half of fiscal of year 2024-25, which is the highest growth rate among key comparable States for which data is available.

As per the provisional figures from the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG), Tamil Nadu’s State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) collection grew 20.12% to ₹35,414.05 crore in the first half of the year 2024-25 from ₹29,481.97 crore in the comparable period last year.

For the same period, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh recorded a growth rate of over 14% in SGST collections, while Maharashtra registered a growth of 13.46% and Karnataka registered a growth rate of over 10%, as per the data.

The States’ goods and services tax (SGST) forms roughly half of states’ own tax revenue (SOTR), according to ratings firm India Ratings and Research. Notably, the year on year growth was strongest in Tamil Nadu, Assam, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka (growth range: 13.3%-50.8% year on year), the firm said in a recent report.

A senior government official from the Tamil Nadu Commercial Taxes Department attributed the growth to a slew of reforms on the administrative side and efforts to plug revenue leakage.

The Commercial Taxes department established a Tax Research Unit on December 30, 2022 and based on its review and recommendations the State has sorted out issues under the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST).

“We have identified tax payers including from the Government-owned companies who are supplying exempted goods and have not utilised the IGST credit and told them to make reversal of such credit through which we have got additional revenue by way of IGST settlement,” the official added.

The Commercial Taxes department has also set up a Big data analytics unit to study the different aspects of revenue losses and through this scrutiny too we have ensured additional revenue, the official noted.

On the administrative side, we created new Territorial divisions and intelligence divisions, besides filling up the vacancies and addressing the long pending issue of promotions. All these measures have helped in increasing compliance, he added

The official further noted that the first half of 2024-25 did not have any festive period and SGST collection has been good and hoped the performance would be good in the second half as well.

Published - November 22, 2024 05:49 pm IST