GST Collections Exceed Rs 1 Lakh Crore In April

The central and state governments earned a total revenue of Rs 32,493 crore for CGST and Rs 40,257 crore for SGST.

The goods and services tax collections in the month of April crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark for the first time since the new tax regime was rolled out on July 1 last year . The total gross revenue for April was Rs 1.03 lakh crore, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

GST Collection Break-Up

• Central Goods and Services Tax: Rs 18,652 crore
• State Goods and Services Tax: Rs 25,704 crore
• Integrated Goods and Services Tax: Rs 50,548 crore
• Compensation Cess: Rs 8,554 crore

The Central and State Governments earned a total revenue of Rs 32,493 crore for CGST and Rs 40,257 crore for the SGST respectively, after settlement in the month of April.

A total of 60.47 lakh GSTR 3B returns were filed for the month of March, as on April 30, as against 87.12 lakh, who are eligible to file returns for March, thus accounting for 69.5 percent of the eligible proportion, the release said.

The ministry attributed the pick up in tax collections to economic recovery and improvement in compliances. However, it said this should not be taken as a trend since the higher numbers could be partly due to the payment of tax arrears in the month for the last financial year.

With anti-evasion measures like e-way bill already introduced and others like TDS (tax deducted at source), TCS (tax collected at source) and credit matching -- which may get introduced in the coming months -- the government could be hopeful of very good GST collections in the current fiscal year.

Abhishek Jain, partner, EY India

The amount collected as tax in April includes IGST paid on imports for the month of April and GST paid on domestic supplies for March, a senior government official told reporters. IGST on imports is collected on the same day as the goods are imported.

News agency PTI had reported that government will shift to cash based accounting of GST revenue, and monthly collections will be reported on first working day of every month. Collections for April, which were released today, would contain the collections made in April as well as CGST and SGST collections of March, according to the news article. From May onwards, the monthly collections of CGST, IGST and SGST would be reported on 1 June.

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