Telangana loses Rs.600 crore in GST annually due to a wrong address

The Telangana government has been losing about ₹600 crore a year as some GST payers have neglected to update their customers’ addresses. Telangana has lost between 1,500 and 1,600 crore after the state was split into two in the recent years.

Officials claim that the records need to be updated with information on up to 7,000 businesses and taxpayers. About 1,500 of them are large companies.

During the GST council meeting on Wednesday in Chandigarh, Telangana’s finance minister T. Harish Rao expressed concern over the significant revenue loss while pointing out that although some states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu, have businesses and clients in Telangana, the state is still listed in the records as Andhra Pradesh.

Incorrect addresses cause the IGST (Integrated Goods and Services Tax) share to occasionally go to the incorrect state since the tax component goes to the Center and it later releases share to the appropriate states (AP).

Telangana’s finance minister, T Harish Rao told, “We have urged the Center to release the tax share to the states based on the postal pin number of the customer instead of state address so that Telangana government gets it legitimate portion without losing it to AP.”

He claimed that in order to collect IGST, the Centre must assist in updating records or order the state’s GST commissioner to update the addresses of tax payers who are located outside the state.

Somesh Kumar, the chief secretary for Telangana, stated that the state has set up special teams to concentrate on significant tax payers/firms and has updated some of their addresses.

“Recovery is a major issue for the state because it has already lost over 1,500 crore over the past five years. We are still working to recover the misplaced funds”, Somesh Kumar said.