GST collection falls below Rs 1 lakh cr for first time in 8 months

The gross GST revenue collection in June declined below Rs 1 lakh crore for the first time in eight months to Rs 92,849 crore. The revenue for June 2021 is 2 per cent higher than the GST revenue recorded in the same month last year. "After posting above Rs 1 lakh crore mark for eight months in a row, the collection in June 2021 dropped below Rs 1 lakh crore," the finance ministry said today.

The GST collection for June is related to the business transactions made during May when most states/UTs were under either complete or partial lockdown due to the exponential rise in COVID-19 cases. The e-way bill data also shows 3.99 crore e-way bills were generated in May compared to 5.88 crore in April, thus showing a 30 per cent decline.

Of the total collection of Rs 92,849 crore, CGST stood at Rs 16,424 crore; SGST at Rs 20,397 crore; IGST Rs 49,079 crore (including Rs 25,762 crore from import of goods); and cess of Rs 6,949 crore (including Rs 809 crore from import of goods).

These figures include GST collection from domestic transactions between June 5 to July 5. This is because taxpayers were given various relief measures by the Centre. They were in the form of waiver/reduction in interest on delayed return filing for 15 days for June for those with aggregate turnover up to Rs 5 crore in the wake of Covid second wave, the ministry said.

During June, the government also settled Rs 19,286 crore to CGST and Rs 16,939 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement.

The ministry said there has been a "recovery of trade and business" with the reduction in caseload and easing of lockdowns, and the e-way bills generated during June stand at 5.5 crore.

"The daily average generation of e-way bills for the first two weeks of April was 20 lakh, which came down to 16 lakh in the last week of April and further to 12 lakh in the two weeks between 9th to 22nd May," said the ministry.

Following that, the average generation of e-way bills has been increasing and has reached again to 20 lakh level since the week beginning 20th June, it said, adding that while the GST revenues dipped during June, they will rise again from July onwards.

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