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The mop-up from the Goods and Services Tax seems to be stabilising with revenue collections in January amounting to a steady ₹86,318 crore.
Though, this is marginally lower than the ₹86,703 crore GST collected in December, the number of taxpayers filing GSTR-3B in January registered an increase and can be seen as an indicator of improving compliance.
According to data released by the Finance Ministry on Tuesday, 57.78 lakh GSTR-3B returns were filed for the month of January, till February 25.
“This is 69 per cent of total taxpayers which are required to file monthly returns,” it said in a release.
At present, there are 1.03 crore taxpayers registered under GST. Of this, 16.42 lakh are composition dealers who file returns every quarter and the remaining 87.03 lakh file monthly returns.
State-wise data showed that the highest number of GSTR-3B returns amongst registered taxpayers was in Punjab (83.18 per cent), followed by Chandigarh (77.37 per cent), Gujarat (75.17 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (74.88 per cent).
However, the filing of monthly tax returns in the North-East, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar is yet to pick up.
Of the GST collected in January, ₹14,233 crore was Central GST (CGST), ₹19,961 crore State GST (SGST), and ₹43,794 crore Integrated GST (IGST). But with ₹24,806 crore transferred from IGST to the Centre and States, their total revenue went up. Another ₹8,331 crore was collected as compensation cess.
The Ministry said ₹11,327 crore was transferred from IGST to CGST account and ₹13,479 crore from IGST to SGST account due to cross-utilisation of IGST credit for payment of CGST and SGST or because of inter-State B2C transactions.
E-way bill booster
Experts said GST receipts may improve further with e-way bill set to be rolled out from April 1.
“With e-way bill requirement coming into force from April 1, the revenue collections may get a boost. Also, about 30 per cent taxpayers registered with GST are still not filing their returns and the government must endeavour to make them file the returns, which may further enhance the overall GST revenue collections,” said Abhishek Jain, Tax Partner, EY India.
MS Mani, Senior Director, Deloitte India, said the government may also introduce more anti-evasion measures such as invoice matching, reverse charge on transactions with unregistered dealers, and transition credit scrutiny . “In the initial months, revenues were based on higher tax rates and, hence, may not be strictly comparable,” he added.
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