GST collection touches a record Rs 1.20 lakh crore in January

As per the data released by the Finance Ministry, the gross GST collection has touched a record of Rs 1.2 lakh crore and there has been a nationwide crackdown against the use of fake GST bills, writes ETV Bharat's Deputy News Editor Krishnanand Tripathi.

New Delhi: In a big relief for the finance minister, who has been grappling with the dwindling revenue collection on account of ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the GST collection for the month of January touched a record of Rs 1.2 lakh crore in the month of January.

According to the latest data released by the ministry of finance, the gross GST collection till 6 pm on the last day of the month was Rs 1,19,847 crores, of which CGST is Rs 21,923 crores. While the SGST collection stands at Rs 29,014 crore, the IGST collection stands at Rs 60,288 crore.

The IGST collection includes Rs 27,424 crore collected on import of goods. The Cess collection stands at Rs 8,622 crore, including Rs 883 crore collected on the import of goods. By January 31, the total number of GSTR-3B Returns filed for the month of December stood at 90 lakhs GSTR-3B forms.

"The government has settled Rs 24,531 crore to CGST and Rs 19,371 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement," the finance ministry said.

The total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after regular settlement in the month of January 2021 is Rs 46,454 crore for the CGST and Rs 48,385 crore for the SGST, the ministry added. The government said the GST collection in the month of January is in line with the trend of recovery in the GST revenues over the past five months.

"The revenue collection for the month of January 2021 is 8% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year, which in itself was more than Rs 1.1 lakh crore," said the ministry.

The government said GST collection on import of goods registered a growth of 16% in January, and the revenue collection from domestic transactions, including import of services, is 6% higher than the revenue collection from these sources during the same month last year. The Finance Ministry said GST collection is above Rs 1 lakh crore during the last four months clearly indicates a rapid economic recovery post-pandemic.

Strict enforcement leads to revenue buoyancy

The ministry said close monitoring against the use of fake GST invoice, use of data analytics and sharing of data between different revenue intelligence agencies led to better revenue collection as it helped plug the leakage in the tax collection system.

Crackdown against tax evaders

As reported earlier by ETV Bharat, the GST intelligence authorities have launched a nationwide crackdown against the use of fake GST bills.

The drive which started in the second week of November has resulted in the arrest of 274 tax evaders so far, including 8 chartered accountants and one company secretary and at least two persons have been booked under the stringent COFEPOSA (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act) law.
"So far we have booked more than 2,700 cases against more than 8,500 bogus entities involved in tax evasion," a source told ETV Bharat. The source said GST authorities have so far recovered more than Rs 858 crore from fake GST dealers.