Centre garners Rs 12,000 crore GST from Bengal till December

The Centre has raked in some Rs 12,000 crore from West Bengal during the current fiscal till December as its share from the Goods and Services Tax from the state and expects to exceed the target of Rs 18,000 crore by March 2019, a revenue official said Friday.

"The CGST share target for the FY19 was Rs 18,000 crore and till December we have already collected Rs 12,000 crore. We hope the target may get exceeded by March," assistant commissioner of CGST, Pandiyaraj G V said on the sidelines of The Bengal Chamber organised seminar on contentious issues related to GST.

He said the filing of refund which is still semi-online would get streamlined soon. Tax expert T B Chatterjee said GST is a great step but was introduced without training of officials.

"The GST officials at the local office level, be it from the state or the Centre are incompetent to guide the traders causing disruptions despite being a good tax system," he said.