The communication noted that the uptick in GST receipts continued and collections for the month of November at ₹1.31 trillion, the second highest so far since the roll out of GST, was a welcome sign of a reviving economy

NEW DELHI : Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has urged all field officers to focus on revenue collection efforts and take all possible steps in the remaining period of the current financial year to improve collections, showed an official update.

"With four more months to go in this financial year, we need to keep our eyeballs fixed on the revenue collections and to take all possible measures for revenue augmentation on the basis of a pre-determined, systematic action plan both for Customs as well as for Goods and Services Tax (GST)," said Vivek Johri, the newly appointed Chairman of CBIC in a weekly update posted on the tax authority's website

The communication addressed to his colleagues said that CBIC is "deeply committed to providing a clean, transparent, learning and forward-looking administration that is able to separate the grain from the chaff--pursue the wrong-doers and provide all possible assistance to the compliant taxpayer."

The communication noted that the uptick in GST receipts continued and collections for the month of November at ₹1.31 trillion, the second-highest so far since the rollout of GST, was a welcome sign of a reviving economy. It also acknowledged the collective effort in scaling up compliance levels, nudging non-filers and late filers to file returns and the use of data analytics to identify those gaming the system.

Johri also reminded officers about finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's message to officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence—the need for time-bound completion of investigations and preventing illicit import of hazardous waste.

The signal to field officers to focus on revenue collection from GST and customs comes at a time the government had to reduce the excise duty rate to provide relief to consumers. It remains to be seen if the uptick seen in GST during the festive season sustains in the coming months.