GST base has increased in Guntur, says GST Commissioner

GST Commissioner Sadhu Narasimha Reddy, Guntur DRM M. Ramakrishna and Tobacco Board Executive Director A. Sridhar Babu and others participating at GST anniversary celebration, in Guntur on Monday.

Stating that the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Guntur has achieved remarkable progress over the years, GST Commissioner Sadhu Narasimha Reddy revealed that, since the inception of GST, taxpayer base has grown rapidly, from 28,000 to approximately 78,000 at present, which is a 278 percent increase.

In 2017-18, the revenue stood at ₹2,856 crore, which has surged to an impressive ₹7,000 crore, marking a remarkable growth of 245 percent over these years. He added that this increase was achieved with the same set of staff strength, which is close to 150 employees. 

Addressing the gathering at the seventh anniversary of GST celebrated in Guntur on Monday, Mr. Narasimha Reddy said that the GST is the biggest indirect tax reform India has ever seen. He said that the GST subsumed many indirect Central and State taxes, removed cascading of taxes and through digitisation brought transparency. It resulted in a substantial increase in tax revenue. 

The GST revenue in first month of implementation, that is July 2017 was close to ₹93,000 crore and it reached ₹2.1 lakh crore in April 2024, at the national level. While the Indian economy is growing at seven percentage, the GST is growing at around 12 percent, thereby showing the success of this new tax system in tax compliance, formalisation and digitisation of Indian economy. 

The Commissioner observed that their efforts in combating tax evasion have also yielded significant results. “We have successfully seized foreign cigarettes worth crores of rupees, and in collaboration with Jindal Urban Wast Management (Guntur) Limited, we have taken proactive steps to incinerate these seized cigarettes at Kondaveedu.”  

He added that the vigilance in detecting tax fraud and non-compliance has increased. The detection of evasion has increased significantly from around ₹50 crore in previous years to ₹403 crore in the 2023-24 financial year. Similarly, the realisation of duties has seen a substantial rise from an average of ₹30 crore in the previous years to approximately ₹280 crore in the current fiscal year.  

Guntur DRM M. Ramakrishna, Tobacco Board of India Executive Director A. Sridhar Babu and others also participated in the event.