Collection from Goods & Services Tax GST rose over 9 per cent to over ₹1.83 lakh crore in February, data released by the Finance Ministry on Saturday. This reflect improvement in consumer sentiments.
Also, this is the 12th consecutive month with over ₹1.7 lakh crore of collections. However, February data is only for 28 days; otherwise, the collection could have been more. During the same month, net GST collections, after discounting the refunds, were also 8.1 per cent higher from the previous year.
Gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue includes a 10.2 per cent jump in domestic revenues to ₹1.42 lakh crore and a 5.4 per cent rise in revenues from imports to ₹41,702 crore during February.
As per the data, during the month, mop-up from Central GST stood at ₹35,204 crore, State GST at ₹43,704 crore, Integrated GST at ₹90,870 crore and compensation cess of ₹13,868 crore.
Commenting on the data, M S Mani, Partner with Deloitte India, said that the trend of GST collections on domestic transactions growing at a healthy 10% plus seen during the current year has continued this month as well. However, the GST collections on imports during the month have slowed down to 5.4%. This needs to be correlated with the GDP data on domestic consumption and imports.
“ While GST collections in large manufacturing and consuming states like Haryana, UP, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, MP, Karnataka have shown handsome increases in the range of 10 per cent to 20 per cent, a detailed evaluation on the reasons for the low growth in the range of 1 per cent to 4 per cent in Telangana, Gujarat, Assam, AP and Odisha could provide reasons on the factors responsible for growth in GST collections, he said.
Saurabh Agarwal, Tax Partner at EY India, said that the robust GST collection figures indicate that the Indian economy is withstanding global economic challenges. The consistent rise in domestic GST revenue compared to import-related collections points to the effective implementation of the Atmanirbhar Bharat policies. Furthermore, the government’s increased disbursement of domestic and export refunds, including those related to inverted duty structures, demonstrates its commitment to easing working capital pressures on businesses.
“This trend suggests a potential move towards resolving inverted duty issues across various sectors in a short run, which would streamline administrative processes for both the government and taxpayers”, he said.
