Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the government has adopted "a pro-poor approach" while implementing Goods and Services Tax, and despite lower taxes rates the revenues as a percentage of GDP have reached the pre-GST level. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Sitharaman said without GST, states' revenue from subsumed taxes from FY 2018-19 to 2023-24 would have been Rs 37.5 lakh crore. With GST, states' actual revenue amounted to Rs 46.56 lakh crore. "Despite the GST rate being less than the prescribed Revenue Neutral Rate and COVID-19 affecting the revenues, GST collections (as a percentage of GDP) have now reached the levels they were before GST (both net and gross). "This demonstrates that the Centre & States, collectively, through better tax administration, are able to collect the same revenue with a lower burden on our taxpayers," she said. GST, which was rolled out on July 1, 2017, had subsumed 17 taxes and 13 cesses into a 5-tier structure, thereby ...