GST collection at Rs 1.17 lakh cr, registers 23% y-o-y growth in September

Goods and Service Tax (GST) collection in September has seen a sharp increase compared to the collection in this month last year, writes ETV Bharat Deputy News Editor Krishnanand Tripathi

New Delhi:The Goods and Service Tax (GST) collection in September was a little over Rs 1.17 lakh crore, a sharp rise of 23 per cent from the GST collected during the same month last year, latest official data released on Friday showed.

GST collection during September has seen a rise in the last two years despite the Covid-19 outbreak. The GST collection in September 2020 recorded a four per cent growth over the collection in September 2019, which was Rs 91,916 crore. This growth is attributed to the fact that the government was gradually opening the economy after three months of complete nationwide lockdown in April-June 2020.

The Integrated GST collection, the biggest component, was Rs 60,911 crore -- this includes Rs 29,555 crore IGST collected on import of goods, followed by State GST at Rs 26,767 crore, Central GST at Rs 20,578 crore and Cess collection at Rs 8,754 crore -- including the Rs 623 crore collected from import of goods.

The government has settled Rs 28,812 crore to Central GST and Rs 24,140 crore to State GST from IGST as per the regular settlement.

The total revenue of Centre and the states after regular settlements in September 2021 is Rs 49,390 crore for Central GST and Rs 50,907 crore for the State GST.

In September this year, the GST collection from import of goods was 30 per cent higher and the revenue from domestic transactions -- also includes import of services -- is 20 per cent higher than the GST collection from these two sources during the same month last year.

Maintaining the momentum

According to official data, the average monthly GST collection for the second quarter of the current year has been Rs 1.15 lakh crore, which is five per cent higher than the average monthly collection of Rs 1.10 lakh crore in the first quarter of the year.

The Finance Ministry said the trend in GST collection clearly indicates that the economy is recovering at a fast pace.

“Coupled with economic growth, anti-evasion activities, especially action against fake billers, have also been contributing to the enhanced GST collections,” said the ministry.

Tax authorities have launched a nationwide crackdown against the use of fake GST bills to fraudulently claim the input tax credit (ITC) late last year which resulted in the buoyancy in the GST collection since then.

Officials said the positive trend in the GST collection is expected to continue in the coming months.

The Centre had also released GST compensation of Rs. 22,000 crore to States to meet their GST revenue gap.