Consumer demand, high commodity prices, and better compliance behind surge in GST collections

In June 2017, when goods and services tax (GST) was launched in India in a grand midnight event in Parliament promising to turn India into a “one nation, one tax” market, a 14 percent annual growth in revenue collections for states were assumed. The Centre promised to compensate states for any shortfall below that growth, demonstrating its intent to walk the talk on the hypothesis that GST will ev…