The Finance Ministry has announced the gross collections of Goods and Services Tax (GST) for October 2021 on 1st November 2021. It stood at approximately Rs.1.3 lakh crore, confirming that this was the second-highest GST collection since April 2021.
The press release by the ministry states that the gross GST revenue for October 2021 is Rs.130,127 crore. CGST amounts to Rs.23,861 crore, SGST is Rs.30,421 crore, IGST is Rs.67,361 crore and Cess is Rs.8,484 crore.
The government has compensated Rs.27,310 crores towards CGST and Rs.22,394 crores towards SGST from the IGST component. Hence, the cumulative revenue after regular settlement of the Centre and states in October 2021 is Rs.51,171 crores for CGST and Rs.52,815 crores for SGST.
IGST, CGST and SGST are tax components under GST. While IGST stands for the Integrated Goods and Services Tax, CGST and SGST are respectively called the Central Goods and Services Tax and the State Goods and Services Tax. The IGST revenue is collected and distributed to the central and state governments. In contrast, the rest of the two components are collected directly by them.
The government press release also pointed out that the GST revenue for October 2021 is higher by 24% when compared to the corresponding figure in the previous year FY 2020-21. It is 36% more than the same month in FY 2019-20.
In October 2021, the GST revenue by importing goods was 39% higher, whereas it was 19% higher for domestic sales. It is higher than the tax revenue earned during the same month in the last financial year.
As far as the state GST revenues are concerned, Maharashtra recorded a 23% hike in GST revenues in October 2021. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu registered an 11% revenue growth, Gujarat and Karnataka respectively clocked a growth rate of 25% and 18%.
The ministry further highlighted that the high revenue collection was in line with the economic recovery trend. The GST revenue for April 2021 was recorded at Rs.141,384 crores, 14% higher than the GST collections for the previous month. It can be seen from the volume of e-way bills generated every month that a higher GST collection can be expected.
The trend has been on an upward momentum since the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ministry also commented that had there been no supply disruption of semiconductors, the revenues would have been much higher due to the push given to the car sales.
The high collections could also be on account of more measures being implemented to prevent tax evasion. These include blocking of e-way bills and GSTR-1 due to non-filing of GSTR-3B, etc. Ease in return filing due to auto-population of data has also been one of the factors for better compliance. The current upward trend in GST collections is expected to continue until the end of the current calendar year due to the festive and holiday season.
For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at annapoorna.m@cleartax.in
Annapoorna, popularly known as Anna, is an aspiring Chartered Accountant with a flair for GST. She spends most of her day Singing hymns to the tune of jee-es-tee! Well, not most of her day, just now and then.
