GST Collection For February At All-Time High
The government's goods and service tax revenue collection for February surged to a record.
The government's goods and service tax revenue collection for February surged to a record.
The GST revenue for February (collected in March) stood at a little over Rs 1.42 lakh crore, according to a statement by the Finance Ministry.
The month's revenue collections are 15% higher than a year earlier and 46% higher than the GST revenues collected for February in March 2020.
The collection in March 2022 (for February) is an all-time high, breaching earlier record of Rs 1.41 crore collected in January 2022.
Break-Up Of GST Collections
Central GST: Rs 25,830 crore.
State GST: Rs 32,378 crore.
Integrated GST: Rs 74,470 crore, including Rs 39,131 crore collected on import of goods.
Cess: Rs 9,417 crore, including Rs 981 crore collected on import of goods.
"The average monthly gross GST collection for the last quarter of FY2021-22 has been Rs 1.38 lakh crore against the average monthly collection of Rs 1.10 lakh crore, Rs 1.15 lakh crore and Rs 1.30 lakh crore in the first, second and third quarters, respectively, " the statement said.
Economic recovery, anti-evasion activities, particularly against fake billers, rate rationalisation measures to correct inverted duty structure on items are credited for the higher GST collections. Measures on GST slab rate rationalisation are expected to tabled in the next council meeting.
Also, revenue from import of goods was recorded 25% higher and revenue from domestic transaction (including import of services) were 11% higher than the corresponding period last year.
Mobility, evidenced by the number of e-way bills generated in the month, stood at 6.91 crore.
Despite being a shorter month, the figure is more than that of January 2022 (6.88 crore), indicating recovery of business activity at faster pace, the statement said.
Inter state variation adds to compensation worries
State-wise, collections rose the most in Odisha at 26% year-on-year to Rs 4,125 crore. GST collections for March remained above 15% for Maharashtra (19%), Andhra Pradesh (18%), Haryana (17%) and Punjab (15%).
Devendra Pant, chief economist and head public finance at India Ratings, said the variation in inter-state collection adds more merit to the state’s demand on continuation of GST compensation.
For states such as West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, growth was less than 10%. This suggests inter-state variation in consumption and investment growth and provides more support to state’s demand for continuation of GST compensation beyond five years.Devendra Pant, Chief Economist and Head Public Finance at India Ratings
Compensation cess to states ends by July 2022. But the GST compensation cess would be levied till 2025-26. The amount so collected would be used to repay the loans taken by the centre to provide GST compensation to the states during the pandemic years of 2019-20 and 2020-21.