In signs of sluggish momentum in tax collections, Goods and Services Tax (GST) receipts in June fell to Rs 99,939 crore, down from over Rs 1 lakh crore in the previous month, the finance ministry said on Monday. While the GST collections in June were lower than Rs 1,00,289 crore in May, they were higher than Rs 95,610 crore receipts in the same month of the previous year. The total number of GSTR-3B returns filed up to June 30, 2019, is 74.38 lakh, as against 72.45 lakh filed in May.

"Total gross GST revenue collected in the month of June, 2019 is Rs 99,939 crore of which CGST is Rs 18,366 crore, SGST is Rs 25,343 crore, IGST is Rs 47,772 crore and cess is Rs 8,457 crore," the statement said.

While the June GST collections at Rs 99,939 crore snapped the three months of Rs 1 lakh crore mop-up trend, it was 4.52 per cent higher than the collections in June 2018. Speaking to reporters, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said that the government will meet the GST collection target set for current fiscal year.

"Even if there is any shortfall in a particular month's collection, we will achieve the budget target at the end of the fiscal. I can assure you that in the coming months you will see increase in GST collections," Mr Thakur said.

For 2019-20, the government proposes to collect Rs 6.10 lakh crore from CGST and Rs 1.01 lakh crore as compensation cess. The IGST balance has been pegged at Rs 50,000 crore.

The CGST collection in 2018-19 was Rs 4.25 lakh crore, while compensation cess was over Rs 97,000 crore.

During June 2019, the government has settled Rs 18,169 crore towards CGST and Rs 13,613 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement.

The total revenue earned by the central government and state governments after regular settlement in June, 2019 is Rs 36,535 crore for CGST and Rs 38,956 crore for the SGST.

The collections comprise of receipts by both the Centre and state governments of GST, which had two years back amalgamated 17 different indirect tax levies.

PwC India Partner and Leader (Indirect Tax) Pratik Jain said the moderate growth in collections (over the last year) would be a concern and we should expect some tangible measures in form of increased audits and scrutiny over next few months.

"In addition, the Government may explore options as to how consumers are incentivized to be more vigilant on tax compliances. This may also get the Government to rethink about the projected GST collection in 2019-20, which we will get to know when the Union Budget is presented later this week," Mr Jain said.

Deloitte India Partner M S Mani said the marginal dip in collections reinforces the point that there is very little headroom at present for any further rate reductions. "The lower than expected collections would lead more analysis of the data available with the GSTN in order to detect and plug any leakages," Mr Mani added.

