Meghalaya achieves positive growth despite COVID-19 pandemic: Official

 SHILLONG:

Meghalaya Commissioner of Taxes Arunkumar Kembhavi, on Thursday, said that the state achieved positive revenue growth despite the COVID-19 pandemic that had severely affected the country's economy.
"Tax collections in the year 2020-21 stood at Rs 1,526.50 crore (provisional, expected to go up) compared to Rs 1,488.37 crore in 2019-20 when GST compensation is not taken into account. If GST compensation is considered, the revenue collection in 2020-21 stands at Rs 1,698.87 crore (provisional) compared to Rs 1,589.82 crore in 2019-20 showing a positive growth of 6.86 per cent," stated an official press release. 
"GST revenue collection in March 2021 stood at Rs 101.75 crore compared to Rs 58.55 crore in March 2020 showing a phenomenal growth of 73.78 per cent." 
Kembhavi said that the growth was possible because of the several reforms implemented by the taxation department and credited the extra efforts put in by the department officials to improve the percentage of return submission by the taxpayers, disposal of the assessments and the recovery of arrears "especially from bonded warehouses and petrol stations."
Besides this, the Commissioner informed that the department had, for the first time, implemented the Tax Amnesty Scheme through the Meghalaya Settlement of Arrears Act, 2020, which saw a tremendous response from tax defaulters. 
"The department also shifted the backend operating system for GST from NIC Meghalaya to the system developed by GSTN, New Delhi, to further streamline the GST backend procedures," Kembhavi said.
We are optimistic about achieving double-digit growth in the financial year 2021-22, he added.
(Edited by Andre Kongri)

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