Relief to traders in e-way bill system; textiles to be exempt for intra-State transport
Maharashtra has registered 28% increase in receipts under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime in financial year 2017-18, compared to 2016-17, State Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said on Sunday.
Total tax receipts for 2016-17 were ?90,525.19 crore, which rose to ?11,5940.23 crore in 2017-18 after the implementation of the GST. “The performance of Maharashtra is not only encouraging in terms of numbers, but more money in the State treasury would also mean the government will be able to spend on developmental and infrastructure works,” said Mr Mungantiwar, while addressing a gathering of State and Central government officers deputed to work on GST.
According to a presentation made during the event, the first quarter of 2018 has shown an increase of 39.5% in GST collected, compared to last year. In April-June 2017, total tax collection in the State was ?25,742.57 crore, which increased to ?35,915 crore in April-June 2018. There are 14,45,574 GST account holders in the State, of which 4.9 lakh are registered with the Central authority and 9.55 lakh with the State sales department.
Maharashtra also tops the list in implementation of the e-way bill system, which is an electronically generated document for the movement of goods worth over ?50,000 from one place (State) to another. Mr. Mungantiwar announced that the minimum will now be increased to ?1 lakh. He also said textiles will be excluded from the e-way bill system within the State.
The State government also claims to have approved 77.68% applications for GST returns, adding the numbers are encouraging for traders as well. As per government data, the department received a total of 13,235 applications for GST returns amounting to ?2,636 crore. Of these, 10,281 applications seeking refunds worth ?2,258 crore have been sanctioned.
Mr. Mungantiwar said, “We received complaints on several issues while implementing GST over the last year. In a bid to bring more transparency, the government ensured it talked with all stakeholders and solved the problems.”

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