Nov GST mop up at Rs 1.31 lakh cr; second highest since roll out

PTI, Dec 1, 2021, 5:38 PM IST

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Mumbai: Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in November grew 25 percent to Rs 1.31 lakh crore — second-highest since its implementation — indicating economic recovery with normalization of business activity and increased compliance, a finance ministry statement said on Wednesday.

This is the fifth month in a row that the revenues from goods sold and services rendered were over Rs 1 lakh crore.

”The gross GST revenue collected in November 2021 is Rs 1,31,526 crore of which CGST is Rs 23,978 crore, SGST is Rs 31,127 crore, IGST is Rs 66,815 crore (including Rs 32,165 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is Rs 9,606 crore (including Rs 653 crore collected on import of goods),” the statement said.

CGST refers to Central Goods and Services Tax, SGST (State Goods and Services Tax), and IGST (Integrated Goods and Services Tax).

The revenues for November 2021, are 25 percent higher than close to Rs 1.05 lakh crore Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue in November 2020, and 27 percent higher over November 2019 revenues.

”The GST revenues for November 2021 have been the second-highest ever since the introduction of GST, second only to that in April 2021, which related to year-end revenues and higher than last month’s collection, which also included the impact of returns required to be filed quarterly. This is very much in line with the trend in economic recovery,” the ministry said.

In October 2021, the revenues were at Rs 1,30,127 crore, while in April 2021 it was the highest at Rs 1,39,708 crore.

The recent trend of high GST revenues has been a result of various policy and administrative measures that have been taken in the past to improve compliance. GST, which subsumed a host of indirect taxes like excise duty, service tax, VAT, was rolled out on July 1, 2017.

A large number of initiatives undertaken in the last one year like enhancement of system capacity, nudging non-filers after the last date of filing of returns, auto-population of returns, blocking of e-way bills, and passing of input tax credit for non-filers has led to consistent improvement in the filing of returns over the last few months, the ministry added.

ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said collections may dip in December 2021, as suggested by the deceleration in the daily average e-way bill generation in the first three weeks of November 2021.

”We expect Central GST collections to rise to Rs 5.8 trillion in FY2022, exceeding the FY2022 BE by Rs 50,000 crore,” Nayar added.

Deloitte India Partner M S Mani said the increase in collections across major states ranging from 18 to 30 percent plus points to an economic revival across states, accompanied by an increase in collections from the import of goods.

Tax Connect Advisory Services Partner Vivek Jalan said data analytics and investigations by GST officers seem to give a clear indication to trade and industry that robust compliances are the way ahead under GST.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co Partner Rajat Bose said the collections of November are indicative of robust economic growth. ”The collections should continue to see a rise in the months to come if we don’t see another COVID wave in the country,” Bose said.

The finance ministry on Wednesday revised downwards the GST collection figures for April, May, and June.

Earlier the figure for April was over Rs 1.41 lakh crore, May Rs 1.02 lakh crore, and June Rs 92,849 crore, respectively.

The revised numbers of the current fiscal stands at April Rs 1,39,708 crore, May at Rs 97,821 crore, June (Rs 92,800 crore), July (over Rs 1.16 lakh crore), August (over Rs 1.12 lakh crore), September (over Rs 1.17 lakh crore), October (over Rs 1.30 lakh crore) and November (Rs 1.31 lakh crore).