GST revenues above ₹ 1 lakh crore over the last four months are clear indicators of rapid post-pandemic economic recovery

The gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collected in the month of January is close to ₹ 1.2 lakh crore. This is the highest since GST was introduced in the country, exceeding the previous record collection of ₹1.15 lakh crore in December 2020.

The GST collections have been above ₹ 1 lakh crore over the last four months. This, along with a steep increasing trend in collections during the period, are clear indicators of a rapid economic recovery post pandemic, the Ministry of Finance said while releasing the latest data.

The average Year-on-Year growth in GST revenue over the first four months in the second half of the financial year has been 8% as compared to (-) 24% during the first half of the year, it pointed out.

The ministry said the figures for collections till 6 pm on Sunday stood at ₹ 1,19,847 crore. Of this, CGST is ₹ 21,923 crore, SGST is ₹ 29,014 crore, IGST is ₹ 60,288 crore (including ₹ 27,424 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is ₹ 8,622 crore (including ₹ 883crore collected on import of goods).

The total number of GSTR-3B Returns filed for the month of December 2020 till Sunday is 90 lakhs.

According to a statement issued by the ministry, the government has settled ₹ 24,531 crore to CGST and ₹ 19,371 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 January 2021 is ₹ 46,454 crore for CGST and ₹ 48,385 crore for the SGST.

In line with the trend of recovery in the GST revenues over the past five months, the revenues for the month of January 2021 are 8% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year, which in itself was more than ₹ 1.1 lakh crore.

During the month, revenues from import of goods were 16% higher and the revenues from domestic transactions (including import of services) were 6% higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.

According to the ministry, the steady increase in tax revenue over the last few months is the result of closer monitoring against fake-billing, deep data analytics using data from multiple sources including GST, Income-tax and Customs IT systems and effective tax administration.