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Expressing optimism over GST collection, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Chairman -- Vivek Johri has said that Rs 1.5 lakh crore in goods and services tax (GST) collection has become the new normal and that the Board is confident that it will cross this figure in the coming year. The gross GST revenue collected in January 2023 was Rs 1,55,922 crore. This was for the third time, in the current financial year, GST collection has crossed Rs 1.50-lakh-crore mark. The GST collection in January 2023 is the second highest next only to the collection reported in April 2022.

Johri said that the biggest reason for increased GST collection is that there has been a significant increase in I-T return filing and compliance. He said both the Centre and the state governments have worked together. The return filing percentage has increased a lot, and added ‘Along with that the economy has also picked up’. He said the economy has become robust and the effect of Covid is over. He added ‘There has also been some increase due to inflation’. He further said ‘We have definitely increased the National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD) on cigarettes, there has been an increase of about 16 per cent’. He noted that it has been increased because cigarettes are demerit goods, and its consumption has a bad effect on health.

CBIC chairman said there was no increase on tax on cigarettes for the last three years. In a way, he said the Board has done induction of duty. He added ‘From this, I believe that there will be no significant difference on smuggling because if we take the proposal of total tax, then this increase is not very much’. In the context of gold, Johri said it was believed that as the duty on gold increases, so does the smuggling. He added ‘But this is wrong because we found in our analysis that smuggling happened even in the years when the duty on gold was low’. The chairman said when gold duty was increased, smuggling was less.