GST collection surges to over Rs 1-lakh crore in October

GST collection surges to over Rs 1-lakh crore in October

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley attributes the higher collection to lowering of rates, lesser tax frauds and better compliance.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections for October have crossed Rs 1-lakh crore after a gap of five months and is 6.64 per cent higher as compared to September's collection of Rs 94,442 crore. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley attributed the higher collection to lowering of rates, lesser tax frauds and better compliance. The total gross GST revenue collected in October is Rs 100,710 crore, of which CGST (Central GST) is Rs 16,464 crore, while Rs 22,826 crore is the state GST. The government collected Rs 53,419 crore (including Rs 26,908 crore collected on imports) as the Integrated GST. The government collected Rs 8,000 crore as cess, including Rs 955 crore as import collection.

"GST collections for October 2018 have crossed Rs 1-lakh crore. The success of GST is lower rates, lesser evasion, higher compliance, only one tax and negligible interference by taxation authorities," Jaitley said in a Tweet. The total 67.45 lakh GSTR-3B returns were filed for September up to October 31.

"The government has settled Rs 17,490 crore to CGST and Rs 15,107 crore to SGST from IGST as a regular settlement. Further, Rs 30,000 crore has been settled from the balance IGST available with the Centre on a provisional basis in the ratio of 50:50 between the Centre and states," a finance ministry statement said, adding that both the Centre and states -- after regular and provisional settlements -- earned Rs 48,954 crore and Rs 52,934 crore, respectively, for October.

The chart shows trends in revenue during the current year.

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The states that achieved extraordinary growth in tax collection include Kerala (44 per cent), Jharkhand (20 per cent), Rajasthan (14 per cent), Uttarakhand (13 per cent) and Maharashtra (11 per cent). The GST revenue collection for August was Rs 93,960 crore, while it was Rs 96,483 crore in July.

The tax revenue from the GST collection for July increased as compared to Rs 95,610 crore during June. The collections stood at Rs 94,016 crore in May. The Finance Ministry has targeted monthly GST collections to be Rs 1 lakh crore for this fiscal, but the actual mop up has fallen short of the target month after month, except April and October.

Edited by Manoj Sharma