GST return filers increase 65% in 5 yrs to 1.1 crore

With an improved compliance by taxpayers, the number of goods and services tax (GST) return filers rose about 65 per cent to 1.13 crore in 5 years till April 2023. Besides, the number of active taxpayers registered under the GST regime also increased from 1.06 cr as of April 2018, to 1.4 cr, the finance ministry said on Sunday.

As per the data shared by the ministry, 90 per cent of eligible taxpayers are filing GSTR-3B returns by the end of the filing month in the current fiscal year, up from 68 per cent in 2017-18, the first year of GST rollout. “Simplification in Rules and Procedure in GST has resulted in increase in return filing percentage by eligible taxpayers,” the ministry said in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter).

The number of GSTR-3B filers increased from 72.4 lakh in April 2018, to 1.13 crore as of April 2023.

The ministry, however, said that increase in return filing across the years indicates improvement in compliance level. “The monthly collection from GST came in at `1.68 lakh crore in November. It is for the sixth time that gross GST collection has crossed `1.60 lakh crore mark in the current fiscal,” it said.

The GSTR-3B is the monthly return form for filing outward supplies details and tax payment. “With effective policy and systemic changes in GST, the compliance level in GST return filing has improved over the years,” the ministry said.

“Touching a record `1.87 lakh crore in April this year, the GST mop-up across the country has been showing an upw-ard trend on an annual basis since its rollout, and the average gross monthly collection in the current fiscal so far is `1.66 lakh crore,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha earlier.