Govt Collects INR 95,480 Crore GST in September, Highest Since Lockdown Began in March

The September collection of goods and services tax (GST) stood at Rs 95,480 crore (US$ 12.98 billion), the highest on a monthly-basis since the lockdown began in March this year.

September collections were 10.4 percent higher than August and 4 percent higher than the same month last year, the finance ministry said in a statement Thursday.

Mr Abhishek Jain, indirect tax partner at EY, said, “With a significant part of the economy resuming operations and international trade as well resuming pace, the collections have shown decent growth. The increased revenues indicate reinstatement of normalcy in business operations and provides an in general optimistic outlook”.

Central GST is Rs 17,741 crore (US$ 2.41 billion) of the total gross collections, State GST is Rs 23,131 crore (US$ 3.14 billion), Consolidated GST is Rs 47,484 crore (US$ 6.45 billion) and includes Rs 22,442 crore (US$ 3.05 billion) collected on goods imports. Cess collections are received on imports of goods at Rs 7,124 crore (US$ 968.30 million), including Rs 788 crore (US$ 107.11 million).

As a daily settlement, the government has settled Rs 21,260 crore (US$ 2.89 billion) for CGST and Rs 16,997 crore (US$ 2.31 billion) for SGST from IGST.

After routine settlement in September 2020, the combined revenue received by the central government and the state governments is Rs 39,001 crore (US$ 5.30 billion) for CGST and Rs 40,128 crore (US$ 5.45 billion) for SGST.

The ministry said in a statement, “During the month, the revenues from import of goods were 102% and the revenues from domestic transaction (including import of services) were 105% of the revenues from these sources during the same month last year”.

The data comes as states battle with the Centre over compensation for the shortfall in GST collections, even as the first two bi-monthly instalments are yet to be released because of the states for this financial year.

The States will meet again at the GST Council meeting on 5 October to find a consensus on the borrowing options suggested by the Centre.

Source: IBEF