Punjab Finance, Excise and Taxation Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema on Sunday proudly announced that since coming to power in March 2022, the AAP-led Punjab Government has implemented transformative changes with unwavering honesty and transparency, resulting in a consistent increase in its tax revenue year after year.
He highlighted that this fiscal year's net collection from GST, Excise, VAT, CST, and PSDT upto February reflected a growth rate of 12.10 percent compared to the same period of FY 2023-24, with an impressive 28.01 percent growth in net GST collection during February 2025. Revealing this in a press communique issued here, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that this fiscal year has seen a continuation of the previous years’ trend, with a notable 13.39 percent growth rate in net GST, 14.43 percent in Excise, 5.10 percent in VAT, 17.03 percent in CST, and 13.65 percent in PSDT upto February compared to the same period in FY 2023-24.
He said that the total net collection from these taxes upto February this fiscal year is Rs 38272.66 crore as compared to Rs 34141.36 crore during last fiscal year registering an increase of Rs 4131.30 crore. Highlighting the substantial growth in GST revenue for the last month, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that the net GST collection during February 2025 reflected a notable increase of Rs 506.26 crore.
The net GST collection for February 2025 amounted to Rs 2,313.69 crore, compared to Rs 1,807.43 crore in February 2024. Additionally, he also mentioned the commendable rise in Excise revenue, with February's collection reaching Rs 686.47 crore, an increase of Rs 30.47 crore from the Rs 656 crore collected in February last year.
Pointing out the initiatives taken to improve its own tax revenue, the Finance Minister said that the Excise and Taxation department has been achieving its goals through a two-pronged approach of broadening the GST base by running drives to bring unregistered businesses under GST and enhancing compliance among registered taxpayers besides extending every help to the honest taxpayers.
He said that the department has launched the Bill Liyao Inaam Pao Scheme and sought the active involvement of school and college students to spread awareness among the younger generation. Lambasting the previous Akali-BJP and Congress-led state governments for their inability to boost the state's tax revenue, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said they lacked effective fiscal management and political will to tighten the noose around tax evaders.
In contrast, Finance Minister Cheema reiterated the AAP-led Punjab Government's unwavering commitment to honesty, transparency, and transformative changes, which have yielded remarkable achievements in tax revenue growth, ultimately strengthening the state's tax revenue without burdening honest taxpayers.