Shimla, Oct 5 (IANS): Amid a national economic slowdown, the annual collection of Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue in Himachal Pradesh is likely to fall by over Rs 1,200 crore this fiscal compared to the previous one.

This fact came to light at a meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Shrikant Baldi here on Saturday.

The annual collection of GST revenue for 2018-19 was Rs 3,456.98 crore. In 2019-20 it was Rs 1,828 crore till date, an official statement quoting Baldi said.

In 2017-18 the annual GST revenue was Rs 2,497 crore.

To improve the GST revenues, Baldi directed the authorities to increase the tax return filing from 75 to 95 per cent.

He said that a major drive should be launched to improve the GST revenue and directed the field authorities to increase the current 75 per cent return filing by November 30.

According to him, hotels and homestays should be brought in the tax net for which a drive would be started.

He also directed the authorities to prepare a proposal to remove the provision of C-Form on the use of petrol and diesel by consumers.

In order to increase the sale of automobiles within the state, it was purposed to reimburse a portion of SGST to customers for purchase within the state.

He said the reimbursement of tax in SGST would be done for automobile sales, on condition if the dealer passes on the rebate to the customer.

He also said the Himachal Pradesh Settlement Scheme has been purposed to bring down legacy cases of pre-GST regime.