Both goods and services tax (GST) collections as well as its compliance in the first four months since the rollout of the new tax regime remain well below the target, and the situation is unlikely to improve in the near- term, says a report. While it has brought down the 28 per cent tax slab to just under 50 items from over 250 items, it has brought as many as 200 items into 18 per cent tax bracket from the 28 per cent earlier. There are around 9.6 million registered taxpayers under GST, including around 1.5 million of composition dealers, who are required to file taxes quarterly. The report indicates that government requires a monthly run-rate including petroleum items of around Rs 75,000 crore from July to March 2018. The report estimates that average run-rate has been Rs 50,000-55,000 crore, much lower than the required, till now.

Source: dna November 28, 2017 18:11 UTC