GST system needs more resources, attention to improve: Tamil Nadu's PTR

Thiaga Rajan's comments come even as the dates for the 48th meeting of the GST Council are awaited. (Representative image)

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) system needs more resources and attention for the indirect tax regime to be implemented properly, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister P Thiaga Rajan said on November 7.

Speaking at the TIOL Tax Congress 2022 in the Capital, Thiaga Rajan said that while he didn't have any political or personal complaints with how the GST Council functions, he was worried by some other aspects.

"Today, are we dedicating right amount of resources, human and technology, and analytics? Are we moving this to its best possible state? I have sincere concerns about that," Thiaga Rajan asked.

"Look at how often the (GST) Council meets, how committees deliver report? I must say there is still a lot of room for improvement, relative at least to the professional career I came from," he added.

Thiaga Rajan's comments come even as the dates for the 48th meeting of the GST Council are awaited. The Council last met in late June with the aim of meeting again in the first half of August in Madurai - Thiaga Rajan's assembly constituency.

However, the meeting has been repeatedly postponed since then. As per sources, the Council is waiting for the reports of certain Groups of Ministers to be submitted so that they can be discussed by the Council.

The GST Council must meet every three months.

"I have no political or personal complaints about how the GST Council functions, but I do think that we could be implementing this a lot better with a lot more resources and a lot more diligence and attention than we spend today," Thiaga Rajan said.

In his address today, the minister also expressed concern about the high level of income at which incomes are taxed in India.

"Poor people spend a greater part of their assets or income on taxable goods and services than rich people who otherwise do investments... In India we have some unique scenarios - it is very rare to find a country where the first slab of direct taxation starts at 2 or 3 or 5 times the per capita income. Almost any (other) country in the world the first taxable bracket starts at some fraction of the per capita GDP, not multiples of per capita GDP."

"I think that’s something we need to ponder every time we talk about how small the tax base is relative to the population of the country," Thiaga Rajan added.