Centre says revenue growth picking up despite rate rationalisation measures

Goods and Services Tax collections in March 2019 hit ₹1.06 lakh crore, the highest in the history of the tax in India, and the fourth time monthly collections have crossed ₹1 lakh crore this year, according to an official data release on Monday.

Average collections in the year stand at ₹98,114 crore, up 9.2% from the average in 2017-18. GST collections had previously crossed the ₹1 lakh crore mark in April, October, and January this fiscal.

“Total gross GST revenue collected in March 2019 is ₹1,06,577 crore, of which CGST is ₹20,353 crore, SGST is ₹27,520 crore, IGST is ₹50,418 crore (including ₹23,521 crore collected on imports) and cess is ₹8,286 crore,” the government said in a release. “The total number of GSTR 3B Returns filed for February up to March 31, 2019 is 75.95 lakh.”

“The steep increase in GST collections is quite welcome for the economy,” Abhishek Jain, tax partner, EY India, said. “Major reasons for the growth could be reconciliations by businesses of outward and inward supplies, intelligent data analytics-related tax leakage detections and consequent GST payment by businesses.”

The government said the March 2019 revenue was 15.6% higher than a year earlier. “The revenue for the last quarter in 2018-19 is 14.3% higher than a year earlier,” it added. “The monthly average of GST revenue during 2018-19 is ₹98,114 crore which is 9.2% higher than [the average for] FY 2017-18. These figures indicate that the revenue growth has been picking up in recent months, despite various rate rationalisation measures.”