Nirmala Sitharaman. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters
The northeastern States have scripted a success story in the gathering and devolution of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman stated, in Guwahati, on July 21.
“According to the 2023 RBI report on State finances, the eight northeast States have registered a compounded annual GST hike of 27.5%,” she stated.
Ms. Sitharaman was talking on the Investiture Ceremony for conferring the Presidential Award for ‘Specially Distinguished Record of Service’ to officers and workers of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).
“Assam was the first State to ratify the GST Act, four days after it was passed and since then there has been a 12 times increase in the collection of taxes,” the Minister stated.
Assam’s gross sales tax assortment previous to the implementation of the GST was ₹558.26 crore however this has elevated manifold to ₹7,097 crore.
“Sikkim and Meghalaya too have registered a significant achievement with the former’s collection increasing from ₹263.5 crore to ₹3,036 crore and the latter’s from ₹587.21 crore to ₹2,078 crore,” she stated.
”GST has led to a important enchancment in the system which has not solely benefited the States however in the end the folks as properly”, Ms. Sitharaman stated.
The northeast States have borders with 4 international locations and there are 25 useful Land Customs Stations (LCS), out of which solely 15 have digital services.
She urged the officers to make sure that by December, the remaining LCSs even have digital services which is able to assist detect and cease smuggling. The Union Minister is on a two-day go to to Assam and Tripura.
