City bags second spot in country

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 13

More than one year after the roll out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Chandigarh stood second in the country with regards to the percentage of filing of GSTR-3B return.

Sources said the government had recently released the latest figures for the first quarter of the financial year 2018-19. While Punjab secured the top spot in the list, Chandigarh managed to improve its position and came ahead of states such as Gujarat, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh. GSTR-3B is a monthly self-declaration that must be filed as an enrolled dealer. According to the record of the Excise and Taxation Department, there are around 26,542 eligible taxpayers in the city. Out of them, 22,322 have filed the returns, which is 84.10 per cent against 76.74 per cent of the national figures.

The Punjab figures were recorded 87.47 per cent. Sources said over 68 lakh businessmen had filed the GSTR-3B returns for the quarter nationwide. Taxpayer compliance under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system is steadily improving in the city with the cooperation of the dealers of the city.

Charanjiv Singh, chairman of the Chandigarh Beopar Mandal, said while the traders had been supporting the department in the efforts, officials of the department should also hold interaction sessions regularly to make the traders aware of the latest developments in the GST.

Ajay Jagga, an advocate, said, "Greater awareness has worked well. The GSTN portal has also been performing much better, especially for the filing of the GSTR-3B. The department has started many campaigns, including the launch of the GST Rath, to make traders aware of the GST system.

UT sees increase in revenue

The tax collection in the first three months of the financial year (April, May and June) has also witnessed increase by 16 per cent over the corresponding period of the last year. The GST collection has been recorded Rs 495 crore in the first quarter against Rs 425 crore in the same period in the last financial year.