FM Nirmala Seetharama unveils mega infra project to boost economy: GST collection goes up in December

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)   projects worth Rs 102 trillion to tone up economic growth and help the economy reach the $5-trillion target by 2024-25. The NIP has identified projects across 23 sectors and 18 states and Union Territories. These will be funded over the next five years by the central and state governments as well as the private sector, she told a  press conference in New Delhi on December 31 while launching the NIP report. Sitharaman said that 39 per cent each will be contributed by the centre and concerned states for the proposed projects and the rest 22 per cent by private players. She said the government was expecting the private sector’s share to go up to 30 per cent by 2024-25, and added that some additional projects worth Rs 3 trillion would be identified in the coming weeks taking the total commitment to Rs 105 trillion. Meanwhile, GST collection remained above Rs 1 trillion mark for the second month in a row with December mop-up rising to Rs 1.03 trillion as compared to the year-ago period. In December 2018, the GST collection was Rs 97,276 crore. The GST collection in November 2019 stood at Rs 1,03,492 crore. Of the gross Rs 1,03,184 crore last month, CGST is Rs 19,962 crore, SGST is Rs 26,792 crore, IGST is Rs 48,099 crore (including Rs 21,295 crore collected on imports) and Cess is Rs 8,331 crore (including Rs 847 crore collected on imports), an official statement said. During the month, the GST revenue from domestic transactions witnessed a growth of 16 per cent as compared to the year-ago period, an official statement said as India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India and Mahindra & Mahindra on have confirmed a rise in their domestic sales in December. However, Hyundai and Toyota posted negative growth. Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) says its domestic sales were at 1, 24,375 units in December as against 1,21,479 units in the same month a year ago, registering a growth of 2.4 per cent.