New Delhi: The goods and services tax (GST) collections in the month of April were at Rs1.03 trillion, crossing the Rs1 trillion mark for the first time since the new tax regime was rolled out on 1 July.
The buoyancy in tax collections could be attributed to economic recovery and improvement in compliances, the finance ministry said in a statement, but cautioned that the higher numbers could be partly attributed to the payment of tax arrears in the month for the last financial year.
To be sure, GST revenue buoyancy is expected to improve in the coming months with implementation of the e-way bill or electronic tracking of movement of goods from 1 April. This is expected to become a deterrent for tax evaders looking to keep transactions completely off their books or to understate their turnover.
Of the total revenue of Rs1.03 trillion collected in April, Rs18,652 crore was central GST, Rs25704 crore was state GST and Rs50,548 crore was integrated GST (including Rs21,246 crore collected on imports), the finance ministry statement said. The cess was Rs8,554 crore.
The total number of GSTR 3B Returns filed for the month of March up to 30 April was 60.47 lakh as against 87.12 lakh taxpayers, who are eligible to file the Return for the month of March, putting the compliance rate at 69.5%.
Around 11.47 lakh composition dealers of a total of 19.31 lakh such dealers filed their quarterly return in April and paid a tax of Rs579 crore.