“So far, the collection target has been ambitious. We need to set more realistic targets,” a senior Finance Ministry official said.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) is likely to pitch for a downward revision of 2019-20 GST collection target of Rs 13.71 lakh crore for the full year’s Budget to be presented on July 5.
“So far, the collection target has been ambitious. We need to set more realistic targets,” a senior finance ministry official said.
CBIC is expected to request Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for a cut in GST mop-up target announced in the Interim Budget on February 1.
“We haven’t taken a call yet on what the target should be. But it’s obvious that we can’t set a target we can’t achieve. It’s better to over achieve than under-achieve,” the official said.
For 2019-20, the government pegged Rs 13.71 lakh crore as GST collection.
The government had already scaled down the GST collection target by Rs 1 lakh crore, with revised estimate for 2018-19 pegged at Rs 6.44 lakh crore as against the initial Budget target of Rs 7.44 lakh crore.
Out of the pegged Rs 6.44 lakh crore GST collections, the Centre was looking to collect CGST of Rs 5.04 lakh crore and IGST of Rs 50,000 crore.
In 2018-19, though the government met the combined GST target, the Centre’s GST mop-up fell short of the target outlined in the Budget.
The Centre’s GST revenue is estimated to be less by around Rs 70,000 crore from the revised estimate for 2018-19.
