Indian economy began the new year on a positive note with the gross GST revenue collections for the December coming in at Rs 1,03,184 crore. This is the second straight month when GST collections surpassed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark, raising hopes that the economy may have bottomed out from the slowdown seen in recent months.

So far in the nine months this fiscal, the gross GST collections have surpassed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark only five times (April, May, July, November and December), which is a clear indicator that the data numbers are still quite lumpy and the GST system is yet to stabilise despite two and a half years since launch in July 2017.

For the December 2019, the CGST stood at ₹ 19,962 crore, SGST at ₹ 26,792 crore and IGST at ₹ 48,099 crore (including ₹ 1,295 crore collected on imports) and cess at ₹ 8,331crore (including ₹ 847 crore collected on imports). The total number of GSTR 3B Returns filed for the month of November up to December 31, 2019 stood at 81.21 lakh.

The GST revenues during the month of December, 2019 from domestic transactions grew 16 per cent over the revenue during the month of December, 2018.

“If we consider IGST collected from imports, the total revenue during December, 2019 has increased by 9 per cent in comparison to the revenue during December, 2018. During this month, the IGST on import of goods has seen a negative growth of (-) 10 per cent, but is an improvement over (-) 13 per cent last month and (-) 20 per cent in the month of October”, an official release said.

The government has settled ₹ 21,814 crore to CGST and ₹ 15,366 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after regular settlement in the month of December, 2019 stood at ₹ 41,776 crore for CGST and ₹ 42,158 crore for the SGST.

In December 2018, the gross GST revenue collections stood at Rs 94,725 crore.

On State-wise gross domestic GST collections for December 2019, Maharashtra topped with Rs 16,530 crore, up 22 per cent over Rs 13,524 crore in the same month in previous year. Large States that recorded robust growth include Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka  

Experts' take

Commenting on the latest GST revenue collections for December 2019, M.S.Mani, Partner, Deloitte India said:”With the collections now stabilising for two successive months, the planned introduction of e-invoicing and new returns in the coming months would assist in improving the collections”.

Abhishek Jain, Tax Partner, EY said:” The GST collections crossing Rs 1 lakh crore second month in a row and a 16 per cent growth vis-a-vis December 2018 is quite a positive development. It seems that efforts of the Government, like restriction on availment of unmatched credits, to plug GST evasion is bearing results”.

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