GST collection in December reaches all-time high of Rs 1.15 lakh crore

In a ray of hope amid the pandemic, the government has collected a record high Goods and Services tax levy at Rs 1.15 lakh crore in December. This is the highest since the indirect tax system was introduced in 2017.

The GST revenues during December 2020 have been the highest since the introduction of GST and it is the first time that it has reached Rs 1.15 lakh crore, the finance ministry said.

The highest GST collection till now was Rs 1.14 lakh crore in the month of April 2019. The December collection tops that.

But the revenues of April normally tend to be high since they pertain to the returns of March, which marks the end of financial year.

The December 2020 revenues are significantly higher than last month’s revenues of ₹ 1.05 lakh crore.

This is the highest growth in monthly revenues since last 21 months. This has been due to combined effect of the rapid economic recovery post pandemic and the nation-wide drive against GST evaders and fake bills alongwith many systemic changes introduced recently, which have led to improved compliance, the ministry said.

Till now, GST revenues have crossed Rs 1.1 lakh crore three times since introduction of GST.

This is the third month in a row in the current financial year after the economy has been showing signs or recovery post pandemic that the GST revenues have been more than Rs 1 lakh crore.

The average growth in GST revenues during the December quarter has been 7.3% as compared to (-) 8.2% decline during the September quarter and (-) 41.0% during the April quarter of the financial year 2020-21.

“The continued uptick in GST collections would give confidence in the resilience of the economy and indicates that business activities have completely resumed and demand for goods and services continue to be high”.

“The increase in the GST collections on imports indicates that international trade is coming back to normal - however the sector wise import data would throw light on the linkages of the imported goods with domestic manufacturing and exports.”

“With major states reporting an increase ranging from 6% to 15% in their GST collections, compared to the same period last year, it is expected that some of the reductions in collections seen in the earlier part of the current fiscal, would be made up by the improving collections in the past three months,” said Deloitte India.