Punjab Finance, Planning, Excise and Taxation Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Monday said the state has registered an increase of 16.5 per cent and 20.87 per cent in revenue from Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Excise respectively during the first four months of the financial year 2023-24.
Cheema said the state had received revenue of Rs 5846.31 Crore from GST, Rs 2772.08 Crore from Excise, Rs 2286.32 Crore from Value Added Tax (VAT), Rs 80.84 Crore from Central Sales Tax (CST) and Rs 51.62 Crore from Punjab State Development Tax (PSDT) during first four months of fiscal year 2022-23. He said that total revenue of Rs 11037.17 Crore was collected from these sources till the end of July 2022.
Giving credit to the improved performance of Excise and Taxation department, Cheema said the department has reflected consistent improvement with the collection of Rs 6810.76 Crore from GST, Rs 3033.78 Crore from Excise, Rs 2348.55 crore from VAT, Rs 76.91 crore from CST and Rs 52.71 Crore from PSDT during the first four months of this financial year.
He said so far a total of Rs 12322.71 Crore has been received from the above said resources, which is 11.65 per cent more as compared to the revenue collected from these during the same period in 2022-23.
Cheema said while GST has recorded a total increase of 16.5 per cent during the current financial year, and there has been an increase of 36.07 per cent in the revenue received from GST during the month of July this year as compared to July 2022.
“The tax department is making significant strides towards better use of technology to facilitate honest taxpayers and crack down on tax evaders”, said the minister while adding that putting forward another step in the same direction, a new mobile app will also be released soon under the ‘Bill Liao, Inam Pao’ scheme.
The minister said that the previous government remained dependent on GST compensation only and did not take required steps to increase its revenue.