GST collection crosses Rs1 lakh crore mark for second consecutive month in November

Revenue from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) exceeded Rs1 lakh crore for the second consecutive month at Rs104,963 crore in November, posting a 1.4% annualised growth. The revenue, however, fell marginally by 0.18% compared to Rs 105,155 crore collected in the previous month.

GST collections have, however, shown positive growth for the third month in a row after remaining in contraction mode for six months, indicating signs of economic recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic gripped India and forced a national lockdown in March this year, according to official data released on Tuesday.

“In line with the recent trend of recovery in the GST revenues, the revenues for the month of November 2020 are 1.4% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year,” Union finance ministry said in a statement.

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of November, 2020, is Rs104,963 crore of which Central GST (CGST) is Rs19,189 crore, state GST (SGST) is Rs25,540 crore, Integrated GST (IGST) is Rs51,992 crore (including Rs 22,078 crore collected on import of goods), it said.

The collection of compensation cess this month is Rs8,242 crore, including Rs809 crore collected on import of goods, it said. The cess collection has shown a marginal increase of about 3% compared to Rs8,011 crore in October 2020. At the time of introducing the new indirect tax regime in July 2017, the GST law assured states a 14% increase in their annual revenue for five years (up to 2022) and their revenue shortfall should be made good through the compensation cess levied on luxury goods and in products such as liquor, cigarettes, aerated water, automobiles, coal and other tobacco products.

Abhishek Jain, tax partner at consultancy firm EY said, “Second straight month of [Rs] 1 lakh plus collection is certainly indicative of continued economic recovery and the collections being slightly more than the same month last year is quite encouraging. This should also help in containing the shortfall of GST collections caused due to the pandemic.”

Based on a sharp decline in the GST revenue collections due to implementation issues and sudden outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the GST Council in August estimated a total revenue shortfall for 2020-21 at Rs2.35 lakh crore. Out of the total amount, Rs1.10 lakh crore is estimated shortfall in the current financial year because of the implementation issues.

The government has settled Rs 22,293 crore to CGST and Rs16,286 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. “The total revenue earned by Central Government and the state governments after regular settlement in the month of November 2020 is Rs41,482 crore for CGST and Rs41,826 crore for the SGST,” it said.