KOCHI: Although the market has shifted from the era of Value Added Tax (VAT) to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system, report states that there has been no leak in the tax revenue from the gold trade sector in Kerala. This is stated in the RTI report obtained by All Kerala Gold and Silver Merchants Association (AKGSMA) state treasurer Adv. S Abdul Nasar.

Before GST, there were two types of tax system in the gold trade sector in Kerala. VAT on gold was 5 per cent in Kerala (1 per cent in other states). Gold traders had to directly collect 5 per cent tax from consumers and pay it to the state government. The second system was the compounding system.Those adopting compounding were required to collect 1.25 per cent tax from consumers. But this was after paying 125 per cent of the highest tax revenue in the previous three financial years in advance.

The turnover of the gold trading sector in the state was Rs 40,000 crore in the year before GST came into effect. The tax revenue earned by Kerala is Rs 653 crore. Kerala received Rs 394.06 crore as state GST in the first year when GST was introduced. The turnover in 2021-22 was Rs 1.01 lakh crore. Kerala earned Rs 343.81 crore as tax revenue.