Tax officers have been prodding businesses to pay taxes by 31st March so that the amount gets reflected in the GST revenue collection data for March to be released on April 1. Taxes collected by non-EDI (electronic data exchange) ports takes about four-five days to get reflected in the system and therefore the government is planning to come out with a reconciled data for full fiscal by April 10.
According to an official, officers were also prodding some importers to front-load their integrated GST (IGST) payments in March for those inward shipments for which orders have already paid and are due to delivered in next couple of months.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs had directed its field formations to remain open during the last weekend of the current financial year for assisting the taxpayers in filing returns and paying taxes. The government had lowered the GST collection target for 2018-19 fiscal to Rs 11.47 lakh crore in the revised estimates, from Rs 13.71 lakh crore budgeted initially. For fiscal 2019-20, the GST collection target has been budgeted at Rs 13.71 lakh crore.
