GST mop-up tops Rs 1.4L cr for seventh month

Gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections rose to Rs 1,47,686 crore for September (for gross sales in August), a rise of 26.2 per cent from corresponding interval a 12 months in the past, knowledge launched by the Finance Ministry on Saturday confirmed.

Even although the share of collections from imports fell to twenty-eight per cent from 30 per cent, excessive inflation fee, rise in retail costs of many consumption items together with enlargement in utilization of e-invoicing and elevated actions by tax authorities to make sure greater compliance supported the rise in GST collections. August was the primary full month reflecting the entire impression of the speed hike choices taken within the forty seventh GST council assembly, that got here into impact on July 18.

GST exemption was withdrawn from ‘pre-packaged and labelled’ retail packs — together with meals gadgets comparable to curd, lassi, puffed rice, wheat flour, buttermilk — however gadgets offered free or unlabelled nonetheless stay exempt. Pre-packaged and pre-labelled meals gadgets comparable to grains, curd, lassi, paneer, jaggery, wheat flour, puffed rice, buttermilk and meat/fish (besides contemporary and frozen) at the moment are taxed at 5 per cent, at par with branded gadgets.

GST revenues from import of products had been 39 per cent greater, whereas the revenues from home transactions (together with import of providers) had been 22 per cent greater. Monthly GST revenues have been over the Rs 1.4-lakh crore mark for the final seven months, with the month-to-month common for this fiscal at Rs 1.48 lakh crore. The Finance Ministry mentioned the year-on-year progress in GST income throughout April-September 2022 is 27 per cent, persevering with to “display very high buoyancy”.

“This month witnessed the second highest single day collection of Rs 49,453 crore on 20th September with second highest number of 8.77 lakh challans filed, next only to Rs 57,846 crore collected on 20th July 2022 through 9.58 lakh challans, which pertained to end of the year returns. This clearly shows that the GST portal maintained by GSTN has fully stabilized and is glitch free,” it added.

E-way payments, utilized in inter-state transactions, confirmed a marginal pickup. During August 2022, 7.7 crore e-way payments had been generated, which had been marginally greater than 7.5 crore in July, the ministry’s assertion mentioned. “September also saw another milestone getting crossed when more than 1.1 crore e-way bills and e-invoices, combined (72.94 lakh e-invoices and 37.74 lakh e-way bills), were generated without any glitch on the portal run by NIC on 30th September 2022,” it added.

Some specialists, nonetheless, mentioned that the GST collections haven’t rise in tune with the rise in e-way payments, which solely displays exercise for the products section and never the providers sector. Also, the impression of inflation within the pickup in GST collections is critical.

In a report launched on September 29, India Ratings and Research mentioned excessive GST assortment for practically two years now is because of a mix of three components – (i) improved compliance/enforcement, (ii) greater nominal GDP (resulting from inflation), and (iii) greater imports (resulting from elevated commodity costs). “Higher GST collections should not be construed as an indication of a rise in consumption demand. In real terms, private final consumption expenditure (proxy for consumption demand) in Q1 FY23 grew 9.9% over Q1 FY20, but in nominal terms it grew 36% during the same period. The real and nominal GDP during the same period grew 3.8% and 31.4%, respectively. This clearly suggests the surge in GST collections is more due to the higher inflation than higher consumption,” it mentioned.

Going forward, specialists mentioned that GST revenues will enhance with the onset of the festive season.

“The collections in the next three months are expected to be even more robust due to the higher consumption expected during the festive season and the extension of the mandatory e-invoice protocol to taxpayers having turnover above Rs 10 Cr from 1st October. The statewise data on collections reflects the good growth in collections across key states with many large states demonstrating an above 20% increase in collections compared to the last year,” MS Mani, companion, Deloitte India mentioned.

At least 18 states/UTs recorded a better than 20 per cent progress in GST collections.

Out of gross GST income of Rs 1,47,686 crore, CGST — the tax levied on intra-state provides of products and providers by the Centre — is Rs 25,271 crore and SGST — the tax levied on intra-state provides of products and providers by the states — is Rs 31,813 crore, mentioned the Finance Ministry.

IGST — tax levied on all inter-state provides of products and providers — is Rs 80,464 crore (together with Rs 41,215 crore collected on import of products) and cess Rs 10,137 crore (together with Rs 856 crore collected on import of products), it mentioned.

The authorities has settled Rs 31,880 crore to CGST and Rs 27,403 crore to SGST from IGST. The complete income of Centre and the states in September after common settlement is Rs 57,151 crore for CGST and Rs 59,216 crore for SGST, the ministry added.