Why GST collection scaled to all-time high of Rs 1.68 crore in April 2022

NEW DELHI: India's Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenues crossed the Rs 1.5 lakh crore market for the first time and touched a new record of Rs 1.67 lakh crore in April on the back of increased compliance, better tax adminstration and improved economic activity despite the escalating geopolitical conflict in Russia and Ukraine.
April's GST collections are almost 18% higher than the government's previous record of Rs 1.42 lakh crore in March and 20 per cent higher when compared to the year-ago figure of Rs 1.39 lakh crore.
“It is a result of various measures taken by the tax administration to nudge taxpayers to file timely returns and make compliance easier, and smoother and strict enforcement action taken against errant taxpayers identified based on data analytics and artificial intelligence,” the finance ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The growth in revenue collections in April, based on transactions in March, has been the fastest since November 2021.
April also witnessed the highest ever tax collection in a single day on April 20, 2022 when Rs 57,847 crore was paid through 9.58 lakh transactions, the ministry said. The highest single day payment on the same date last year was Rs 48,000 crore through 7.22 lakh transactions.
"“The record collection is in the backdrop of the commendable usage of technology in compliances by the Government. Also, the usage of analytics has helped too. It is interesting to note that the growth is across most of the states. The steady growth over the recent collection of Rs 135,000 Cr average a month, reflects a stabilisation of the GST collection & growth as well. The growth also reflects enhanced business activities," said Mahesh Jaising, Partner, Deloitte India.
Point to note: This is the tenth month in a row that the GST revenues crossed Rs 1 lakh crore mark.
During April 2022, 1.06 crore of the monthly summary GSTR-3B (self-declared) returns were filed, of which 97 lakh pertained to March, as against 92 lakh filed during April 2021. Also, 1.05 crore statements of invoices issued in GSTR-1 (outward supplies returns) were filed, the Ministry said.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also emphasised the role of states in the highest-ever GST collections. “Sincerely recognise and appreciate the efforts made by each and every state in improving #GST revenue collection. India’s economic recovery is sure to be on a sustained path due to all our efforts,” she said on Twitter.
The government has settled Rs 33,423 crore to CGST and Rs 26,962 crore to SGST from IGST.
State-wise, the collection rose the most in Uttarakhand -- up 33 per cent on year to Rs 1,887 crore, from Rs 1,422 crore.
GST collections remained above 20 per cent for Odisha (28 per cent), Maharashtra (25 per cent), Haryana (22 per cent), and Andhra Pradesh (22 per cent).
"The steep growth in the GST collections is based on all major states reporting increases ranging from 9% to 25%, GST return filing standing at 1.06 crore returns, e-way bill generation at 7.7 Crores, accompanied by a deep focus on data analytics to curb evasion” said M S Mani, Partner, Deloitte India. He added that while GST collections in respect of March have always been high, the record collections reported are on account of multiple favourable factors, including the recent changes on permitting input tax credits only upon timely compliance by vendors.
“The impact of the continuing focus on ensuring timely compliance by all GST registrants by restricting the input tax credits of the buyers together with enhanced analytics to detect evasion has also contributed significantly to the all-time high collections reported,” he said.