Gross goods and services tax (GST) collections rose 18% on year to Rs 1.33 lakh crore for February (January transactions). For the fifth month in a row, the collections crossed the Rs 1.3 lakh-crore mark. The trend so far indicate that the Central GST (CGST) collections could exceed the FY22 revised estimate (RE) by at least Rs 20,000 crore.
Revenues for the month of February 2022 were 18% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last financial year, and 26% over FY20.
Daily e-way bill generation for goods transportation stood at a record 24.47 crore in the first 27 days of February, the highest since the system was rolled out in September 2018, reflecting an uptick in commerce. So GST collections might maintain the momentum, largely unaffected by the anaemic pace of economic growth. Apart from steps taken by the tax authorities to improve compliance and check evasion, a shift of business from the small-scale units to the large corporate sector also boosted GST receipts.
E-way bills generation is a proxy of GST revenues. Despite having 28 days, the total e-ways bills in February will be around January level of 6.88 crore. Going by the recent monthly trends, the GST collections could be around Rs 1.3 lakh crore for March as well (February sales).
CGST collections stood at about Rs 5.29 lakh crore in April-February, only Rs 41,000 short of the FY22 RE. Given that monthly accruals to CGST are around Rs 60,000 crore, the CGST collections could exceed FY22RE by Rs 20,000 crore.
Gross GST revenue collected in February 2022 is Rs 1,33,026 crore of which CGST is Rs 24,435 crore, SGST Rs 30,779 crore, IGST Rs 67,471 crore (including Rs 33,837 crore collected on goods import) and cess Rs 10,340 crore (including Rs 638 crore collected on goods import).
The government has settled Rs 26,347 crore to CGST and Rs 21,909 crore to SGST from IGST. The total revenue of Centre and the states in February 2022 after regular settlement is Rs 50,782 crore for CGST and Rs 52,688 crore for the SGST.
During February, revenues from import of goods was 38% higher and the revenues from domestic transaction (including import of services) are 12% higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.
This high growth during February 2022 should also be seen in the context of partial lockdowns, weekend and night curfews and various restrictions that were put in place by various states due to the omicron wave, which peaked around January 20,” the finance ministry said. Since implementation of GST, for the first time, GST cess collection crossed Rs 10,000 crore mark, which signifies recovery of certain key sectors, especially, automobile sales, it said.
“While on an overall basis, the collections are 18% higher than the same period last year, there is significant divergence amongst states with increases in the range of 2% to 23% amongst the large states,” said MS Mani, partner, Deloitte India. According to Vivek Jalan, partner, Tax Connect Advisory: “The robust GST Collection is a result of restrictions on availment of input tax credit by the GST departments across the country.”
From January 1, 2022, Section 16(2)(aa) has come into effect whereby in case the supplier makes a mistake in filing its GST return, the buyer is not able to take the ITC.
