India / GST collections at record high of ₹1.24 lakh crore in March

New Delhi: India’s economic recovery is gathering steam. The GST collections for the month of March have topped Rs 1.23 lakh crore,  setting a new record since the implementation of Goods and Services Tax in July 2017.

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of March 2021 rose to a record of ₹ 1,23,902 crore of which CGST is ₹ 22,973 crore, SGST is ₹ 29,329 crore, IGST is ₹ 62,842 crore and Cess is ₹ 8,757 crore, the government said in a statement. 

The numbers are in line with the recovery in the GST revenues over the past six months. The revenues for the month of March 2021 are 27% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year. Experts say the improvement is on account of economic recovery and better compliance.

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 have also contributed to the steady increase in tax revenue over last few months, the government said. 

ET Now learns the stability in GST numbers comes at a time when the Centre is mulling the merger of 12% and 18% slabs. 

“Certain low hanging fruits like inverted duty structure and rate revision in certain products will be addressed before we take up merger of slabs,” a government source told ET Now.

"The healthy GST collections in the month of March 2021, along with the additional devolution of Rs. 45,000 crore to the state governments for the just-concluded fiscal, confirm our view that the tax revenues in FY2021 have exceeded the RE. As a result, we continue to expect the GoI's fiscal deficit to undershoot the FY2021 RE of Rs. 18.5 trillion,  suggesting ample cash balances at the start of FY2022," said Aditi Nayar, Principal Economist, ICRA.