GST collection breaches `1L-cr mark for first time

The total revenue earned by the Central government and the State governments after settlement in the month of April, 2018 is `32,493 crore for CGST and `40,257 crore for the SGST. While Jaitley sounded optimistic on the GST collections in April, tax auth

The government has collected `1.03 lakh crore in taxes under GST in April, indicating stabilisation of the new indirect tax regime which was rolled out on July 1 last year.

The average monthly collection under the GST regime between August 2017-March 2018 was around `89,885 crore.

“GST collections in April exceeding `1 lakh crore is a landmark achievement and a confirmation of increased economic activity as brought out by other reports,” tweeted finance minister Arun Jaitley.

Mr Jaitley said that with the improved economic climate, introduction of e-way bill and improved GST compliance, GST collections would continue to show a positive trend.

“Increased tax collections will help the nation to expand its economic horizons and take it to loftier heights,” added finance minister.

India collected `7.41 lakh crore in GST in 201718 (July to March) the first year of its launch.

However, tax authorities didnt seem too excited and said that April collection may not be a trend. “The buoyancy in the tax revenue of GST reflects the upswing in the economy and better compliance. However, it is usually noticed that in the last month of the Financial Year, people also try to pay arrears of some of the previous months also and, therefore, this month’s revenue cannot be taken as trend for the future,” said a finance ministry statement.

It said that total gross GST revenue collected in the month of April 2018 is `1,03,458 crore of which CGST is `18,652 crore, SGST is `25,704 crore, IGST is `50,548 crore (including `21,246 crore collected on imports) and cess is `8,554 crore (including `702 crore collected on imports).

The total number of GSTR 3B returns filed for the month of March up to 30th April, 2018 is 60.47 lakh as against 87.12 lakh, who are eligible to file the return for the month of March, which is 69.5 per cent.

“April was also the month for filing of quarterly return for composition dealers. Out of 19.31 lakh composition dealers, 11.47 lakh have filed their quarterly return (GSTR 4) which is 59.40 per cent and have paid total tax of `579 crores, which is included in the figure of `1.03 lakh crore of total GST collection,” said the ministry.