Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections crossed the psychological barrier of ₹1 lakh-crore in October, coming in at ₹1,00,710 crore, the government announced on Thursday.
The collections in October 2018 were 20.8% higher than the ₹83,346 crore seen in October 2017.
“The total gross GST revenue collected in the month of October 2018 is ₹1,00,710 crore of which CGST is ₹16,465 crore, SGST is ₹22,826 crore, IGST is ₹53,419 crore (including ₹26,908 crore collected on imports) and cess is ₹8,000 crore (including ₹955 crore collected on imports),” the government said in a statement.
GST collections crossed the ₹1 lakh-crore mark once before in this financial year, in April, but the government had at the time said that this was not indicative of the trend as people filed tax arrears of previous months in April.
“It appears that GST collections have turned the tide and the increased collections would be on account of the stabilisation of GST processes and the anti-evasion measures taken,” M.S. Mani, partner, Deloitte India wrote in a note. “The fact that September heralds the festive season has also helped in improving collections.”
The total number of GSTR 3B returns filed for the month of September up to October 31, 2018 was 67.45 lakh, according to the government.
“The increase may be attributable to multiple factors such as stabilisation of GST compliance system, tightening of administration including e-waybill mechanism and spur in demand as festival season approaches,” Pratik Jain, partner and leader, indirect tax, PwC India said. “Further, September 30 was the due date for claiming the input credit for last year (2017-18), which would have prompted larger businesses nudging their vendors to report the transactions and pay pending GST.”
The States which achieved strong growth in total taxes collected from the State assessees include Kerala (44%), Jharkhand (20%), Rajasthan (14%), Uttarakhand (13%) and Maharashtra (11%), the government said.
Looking ahead, tax experts caution businesses to ensure that the GST audits are done carefully as there would now be pressure on the revenue authorities to continue with a base level monthly collection of ₹1 lakh crore and any errors would give them room to undertake enforcement actions.