GST may also impact income tax collections: Experts

MUMBAI: Even as the government pushes ahead with implementing goods and services tax ( GST) there could be an unintended implication: increase in the income tax collections, say industry experts.

Industry trackers say that since the GST data will capture the tax paid by all the companies, it could also be compared with the income tax data of the owners, promoters or beneficiaries of the companies.

All businesses — manufacturers, distributors, retailers — will have to register on the GST network once the regulation comes to force. All the transactions of a company and thereby the revenues and profits would be captured by the GST system.

Once captured in the GST system, tax officials can make an educated guess about income and evasion over the past years. "GST will not only impact the indirect tax collection but also the income tax collections as this is one tool where the tax officials will have a data to calculate incomes of people, against the income taxes paid by them," said a person in the know.

Experts point out that there are basically two types of fraud committed by businessmen — first is unilateral, where under invoicing or over invoicing is done only by one of the two people transacting. And then there is bilateral. Some experts said while unilateral frauds would drop drastically, bilateral ones may be difficult to detect even under GST framework.