GST collection at Rs 1.29 lakh crore in December

The gross GST revenue collection in December stood close to Rs 1.30 lakh crore, a tad lower than the previous month's Rs 1.31 lakh crore despite a reduction in e-way bill generation, which tracks the movement of goods from one place to the other.

Data showed revenues from the import of goods were 36% higher in December, which may have contributed to a robust collection. The Ministry of Finance said anti-evasion activities, especially action against fake billers have been contributing to the enhanced GST. The improvement in revenue has also been due to various rate rationalization measures undertaken by the Council to correct the inverted duty structure.

The revenues for December are 13% higher than the collection in the same month last year and 26% higher than the GST revenues in December 2019.

The government has budgeted for a 9.5% growth in tax revenues for 2021-22 at Rs 22.2 lakh crore. Of this, the direct tax collection target is about Rs 11 lakh crore, the rest is from indirect taxes.

The total revenue of Centre and the states December 2021 after settlements is Rs 48,146 crore for CGST (Central Goods and Services Tax) and Rs 49,760 crore for the SGST (State Goods and Services Tax).

The average monthly gross GST collection for the third quarter of the current year has been Rs 1.30 lakh crore against the average monthly collection of Rs 1.10 lakh crore and Rs 1.15 lakh crore in the first and second quarters respectively.

It is expected that the positive trend in the revenues will continue in the last quarter as well, the ministry said.

”The GST collections reflect the continuing improvement in various macroeconomic parameters and appear to have now established a consistent trend over the past few months. The GST collections are high despite a reduction in the e-way bill generation during the same period possibly a higher collection from the services sector accompanied by a continuing focus on the implementation of technology-based anti-evasion measures,” Deloitte India Partner M S Mani said.

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