new delhi multiple rates exemptions and implementation challenges are affecting goods and services tax gst collections in india an analysis by an international monetary fund imf team has saidthe study of indias resource mobilisation for next five years has estimated that in 201819 gst collections were 58 of gdp which was better than some of the comparable developing countries but far below the potential of 82 of gdp indicating that the efficiency gains from the new regime have not fully accruedthe imf team has estimated that the compliance gap may be of the order of 40 a government official told toi the team included ruud de mooij arbind modi li liu dinar prihardini and juan carlos benitezwhile it blamed multiple factors for the divergence between actual collections and potential revenue the assessment flagged exemptions such as those on food articles as an area of concern exemptions for food products alone are estimated to cost up to 04 of gdp and it suggested that the government could look at a direct benefit transfer for the bottom of the pyramid segments to tackle this issuein fact a committee of indian government officers had pointed out that exemptions available to food products were being misused and segments such as basmati rice companies had sought to deregister their brands to avoid paying taxesthe imf team has also said that other design flaws which include multiple rates as opposed to one or two rates in most countries and the threshold for businesses to be included in the gst net reduced the revenue potential and the incentive for compliance besides some of the issues created economic distortions including refund problemswhile there are four slabs 5 12 18 and 28 there are other rates for bullion and real estate apart from cesses on luxury and sin goods such as cars tobacco and soft drinks adding to the complexityit has also pointed to the debate about implementation challenges such as electronic filing or returns eway bills for transporting goods beyond a certain value and cross matching of invoices which trade and businesses have argued are cumbersome and increase the compliance costwith gst collections falling short of the target the government is seeking to plug leakage and also fix some of the design issues including the possibility of an upward revision in some of the slabs while the last meeting of the gst council rejected the demand for a rate revision some of the issues are expected to be taken up at next months meeting of the ministerial panel