GST Collections Stable At Rs 86,318 Crore In January
GST collections in January at Rs 86,318 crore.
The government’s revenue from the Goods and Services Tax remained stable in January.
Total collections for the month stood at Rs 86,318 crore as on Feb. 25, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. That compares with Rs 86,703 crore collected in December and the lowest mop-up of Rs 80,808 crore in November.
The collections have settled around Rs 86,000 crore, Abhishek Jain, partner at EY India, told BloombergQuint. They may get a boost with the e-way bill rollout from April 1.
The break-up of tax collected in January is as follows:
- Central Goods and Services Tax: Rs 14,233 crore.
- State Goods and Services Tax: Rs 19,961 crore.
- Integrated Goods and Services Tax: Rs 43,794 crore.
- Compensation Cess: Rs 8,331 crore.
After settlement of IGST between states and the centre, CGST collected was Rs 25,560 crore while SGST was Rs 33,440 crore. That’s because of the utilisation of IGST credit for paying GST on inter-state business-to-consumer transactions where the consuming state gets its share in the IGST.
While GST revenues are mostly unchanged from the previous month, it’s essential to note that revenues from initial months were based on higher tax rates and may not be strictly comparable, said MS Mani, partner at Deloitte India. The need to increase the collections could lead to more anti-evasion measures and increased vigilance, he added.
About 1.03 crore taxpayers have registered under the GST and 17.65 lakh dealers have opted for the composition scheme.
Of the taxpayers who availed the composition scheme, a scheme that levies a marginal rate of tax but with no input tax credit, 1.23 lakh have opted out. The remaining 87.03 lakh taxpayers are required to file monthly returns.
Businesses opting out of the scheme will increase the taxpayer tax base and lead to more collections, Mani said.
Maharashtra Has Most Taxpayers
About 57.78 lakh GSTR-3B returns were filed as on Feb. 25 compared with 56.30 lakh in December as on Jan. 24.
Taxpayers from Maharashtra filed the maximum 7.7 lakh GSTR-3B returns, according to data shared by the finance ministry. The second on the list is Uttar Pradesh followed by Gujarat, with 6.6 lakh and 5.5 lakh returns filed, respectively.