The government set the highest record for GST collection since its introduction, and reported a record Rs 1,23,902 crore in collection as of March 2021. Of the GST collected, Rs 22,973 crore were collected in CGST, SGST is Rs 29,329 crore, IGST is Rs 62,842 crore (including Rs 31,097 crore collected on import of goods), and Cess is Rs 8,757 crore (including Rs 935 crore collected on import of goods).
The government has settled Rs 21,879 crore to CGST and Rs 17,230 crore to SGST from IGST as a regular settlement. In addition, the Centre has also settled Rs 28,000 crore as IGST ad-hoc settlement in the ratio of 50:50 between Centre and States/UTs.
The total revenue of Centre and the States after regular and ad-hoc settlements in the month of March 2021 is Rs 58,852 crore for CGST and Rs 60,559 crore for the SGST. The Centre has also released a compensation of Rs 30,000 crore during the month of March 2021.
According to the press release, the highest amount of GST collection has been done from the state of Maharashtra, followed by Gujarat, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh etc.
In line with the trend of recovery in the GST revenues over the past five months, the revenues for the month of March 2021 are 27 percent higher than the GST revenues for the same month last year. During the month, revenue from import of goods was 70 percent higher and the revenues from the domestic transaction (including import of services) are 17 percent higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.
The GST revenue witnessed growth rate of (-)41 percent, (-)8 percent, 8 percent, and 14 percent in the first, second, third, and fourth quarters of this financial year, respectively, as compared to the same period last year, clearly indicating the trend in the recovery of GST revenues as well as the economy as a whole.
GST revenues crossed above Rs 1 lakh crore-mark at a stretch for the last six months and a steep increasing trend over this period are clear indicators of rapid economic recovery post-pandemic. 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 the last few months.
