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At ₹1.30-lakh crore in October, GST collections touched the second highest level since the introduction of the new indirect tax regime in 2017. The highest mop-up so far is the ₹1.40-lakh crore plus collected in April this year.
A Finance Ministry statement underlined that the revenues for October were 24 per cent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year and 36 per cent over 2019-20.
Also read: Centre releases ₹44,000 cr to states as last tranche of back-to-back loan for GST shortfall
During the month, revenues from import of goods were 39 per cent higher and from domestic transactions (including import of services) were 19 per cent higher than the same month the previous fiscal.
“This is very much in line with the trend in economic recovery. This is also evident from the trend in e-way bills generated every month since the second wave. The revenues would have been still higher if the sales of cars and other products had not been affected on account of disruption in supply of semiconductors,” the Ministry said.
Rise in compliance
Efforts by State and Central tax administration also added to increased compliance over previous months. In addition to action against individual tax evaders, a a multi-pronged approach was also adopted by the GST Council.
Experts say the only dampener to the uptrend in collections could be the third wave of the pandemic.
“Car sales are down due to the semiconductors and chip shortage. Once this improves, there is bound to be a further increase in GST and cesses,” said Parag Mehta, partner with N A Shah & Associates.
MS Mani, Senior Director, Deloitte India, said if the robust trend continues along with sustained economic growth, it is likely that the GST collection targets for the current year would be exceeded, providing the necessary fiscal space to absorb additional costs on healthcare and redistributive programmes. “In addition to the various measures to streamline return filings, e-way bill generation etc, restrictions placed on non-compliant taxpayers would also have resulted in many taxpayers gradually becoming more compliant. More such measures would further increase tax compliance,” he said.
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