No imapct on social sector spending due to tax shortfall: FM

TIL Desk/Business/Kolkata/ Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday ruled out any scaling down of the social sector spending due to any possible shortfall of tax revenues. “Any tax collection shortfall will not affect commitments made to social sector spending”, she said after interaction with industry and tax officials here in her continuing series of meetings with stakeholders.

Her statement comes amid speculation that some welfare schemes may be axed due to possible shortfall in revenues due to poor tax collections. The Government has many welfare projects on hand such as giving income support to farmers among others. The gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in August, 2019 stood at Rs 98,202 crore.

On the usage of the RBI”s Rs 1.76 lakh crore surplus transfer to the government which could be utilised for social welfare projects, she said the government has not decided how to use the funds. Earlier she said wealth creators and job creators have to be facilitated, hinting at a better approach towards the assesses.