GST: The central government is considering increasing the GST scope. The government can extend it to some parts of the grocery stores.
GST on Kirana Stores: The central government is preparing to increase the scope of GST for more revenue. According to a Reuters report, the government is now planning to bring a section of mom-and-pop stores under the purview of GST. An official informed that in order to take the economy forward, the government can further increase the tax net.
The report states that India has a large informal economy and the central government is trying to increase its tax revenue by including more of these activities. Vivek Johri, chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, told Reuters in an interview that taxes could be increased in some areas where the taxpayer base appears to be small compared to the size of the market.
Discussions with the state government
The official said the central government is working on a strategy with the state governments and will soon seek their inputs to widen the base of indirect taxpayers. Johri said the number of businesses in the GST ambit is set to increase to 14 million by January 2023, from around 6 million in 2017.
Government will use these data to increase tax
Vivek Johri said that the government will use private databases and data available with several government agencies to increase taxes in the business-to-consumer (B2C) sector. These databases can include data of income tax payers, property tax, commercial director, electricity distribution companies and on this basis the tax base can be increased. GST was introduced in 2017 and state and other taxes were subsumed.
