JK Records Highest SGST Growth Rate In The Country At 44.5%: Govt

SRINAGAR: On Monday, an official press release stated that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir experienced an exceptional surge in GST collections during April 2023. The total collections for the month reached Rs 917.85 crores, which is a remarkable increase of Rs 215.77 crores from the April collections of the previous year. This represents a growth rate of 30.73 percent.

As per Ministry of Finance data released today, the SGST growth rate in the aforementioned region has been among the highest in the country, showing a significant increase of 44.51 percent compared to the same period last year. Additionally, there has been a growth of 22 percent in IGST settlement in comparison to the previous financial year.

Moreover, the State Taxes Department reported that the GST collections for April 2023 are the highest-ever recorded since the implementation of GST. This is noteworthy because the previous best-ever collections for a month in terms of SGST cash and IGST monthly average in the last financial year were over Rs 600 crores, according to the release.

The monthly GST collections in the financial year 2021-2022 were Rs 496.95 crores. Recently, the SGST cash collections have been steadily increasing and have gained national attention due to the record growth in Jammu and Kashmir in April 2023, which has surpassed all previous records since the inception of GST.

The State Taxes Department has successfully expanded the tax base from 1.17 Lakh in 2021-22 to 1.34 Lakh in the financial year 2022-23. Additionally, the department granted around 25982 new registrations during the same period.

This increase in revenue collections can be attributed to the department’s efforts in improving compliance behaviour by taxpayers and providing proactive support for GST compliance. The department has also used various IT tools like BIFA, GST Prime, and GST BO portal, along with human intelligence to identify and take action against defaulters. As a result, 8800 cancellations were made in the financial year 2022-23.

Furthermore, honest taxpayers have been recognized and rewarded through the department’s tax awareness program “KARTAVYA,” which was recently launched by the Lieutenant Governor of UT of Jammu and Kashmir, according to the press release.