00:00Well, I think there has been some concerns on the kind of GST collections we have seen in August
00:062024. Because if you place things in a proper historical and comparative perspective,
00:12we find that in August 2023, the figures were of the order of rupees 1,59,000 odd crores.
00:20In July 2024, they were at 1,65,000 odd crores. So that means the pace of growth has not been
00:28maintained. But my submission is that these things need to be placed in a proper perspective.
00:34The kind of leakages, this has come on a very high base. And so there is considerable tax
00:39buoyancy. There's nothing to worry. The festival season is shortly approaching. October, November
00:45is supposed to. So I expect the GST collections will pick up further. But even otherwise,
00:51the basic point which I wish to drive is the fact that once you reach a high base,
00:56it's difficult to maintain a consistently high rate of growth in tax collections.
01:02Well, yes, these are again very impressive figures. If you look at the latest August
01:07figures which I have referred to, the transactions were 14.96 billion,
01:12involving a sum of rupees 20.61 lakh crores. In other words, this translates into a year-on-year
01:20growth of 31%. And what is more important is that these figures are not something like
01:27one of measures. If you look at the trend growth rate in the last four months, we find that these
01:33figures have consistently exceeded 20 lakh crores in the last four months. Going ahead, we see the
01:43transactions reaching 100 billion in the next 10 to 15 years. And this assumes particular importance
01:50in view of the fact that apart from national agencies, the international agencies, multilateral
01:56institutions like the IMF have brought into focus that digitalization-induced profitability gains
02:03has provided significant efficiency and productivity booster to the Indian economy.
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