Observing that Kerala has not benefited as expected from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, the Estimates Committee of the State Legislative Assembly has called for a comparative study of the State’s tax revenue growth before and after the introduction of GST and projections of what the revenue would have been had GST not been introduced.
The committee (2023-2026 period), which placed its report before the Assembly on October 7, has sought an urgent report from the government in this regard.
As part of its recommendations, the committee has asked the government to introduce the e-way bill system for gold and other precious metals, tighten enforcement through regular inspections and take steps to ensure that the State does not lose tax revenue in online transactions.
Revenue loss
Delay in introducing e-way bills for gold and other precious metals is causing revenue loss to the State, the committee said. In fact, neighbouring States such as Karnataka were benefiting from this scenario, it found. The e-way bill system was introduced on April 1, 2018, for all inter-State movement of goods with value exceeding ₹50,000. It was made mandatory for intra-State movement of goods valued above ₹50,000 from April 15, 2018.
