GST collection in July up 28 per cent to Rs 1.49 lakh crore

NEW DELHI: The government collected Rs 1,48,995 crore in goods and services tax (GST) in July 2022, posting a 28% year-on-year increase, according to data released by the finance ministry. This is the second-highest monthly GST collection since the new tax regime came into being in July 2017.  In April this year, the government collected the highest Rs 1.67 lakh crore.

This is the fifth month in a row that the GST revenue has been over Rs 1.4 lakh crore.  In the April-July 2022 period, collections have raised 35% over the same period previous year. “This is a clear impact of various measures taken by the GST Council in the past to ensure better compliance. Better reporting coupled with economic recovery has been having positive impact on the GST revenues on a consistent basis,” the finance ministry said in a statement. 

Minister of state, finance, Pankaj Chaudhary on Monday informed the parliament that the government has taken various measures for improving tax compliance such as mandating e-way bill, ITC matching, mandating e-invoice, deployment of artificial intelligence and machine-based analytics, Aadhar authentication for registration, integration of e-way bill with fast tag etc.

However, analysts do not only attribute the jump in collection to only better compliance and economic recovery. Many of them believe the collection could also be due to higher inflation. While retail inflation has been trending over 7% since April, wholesale inflation has been in double digit for over 15 months. “These consistent high collections indicate recovery from the pandemic hit and can also be attributed to inflation and tight check and balances implemented by the government,” says Abhishek Jain, Partner, Indirect Tax, KPMG.

Of the Rs 1.49 lakh crore collection in July, Central GST is Rs 25,751 crore, state GST is Rs 32,807 crore, integrated GST is Rs 79,518 crore (including  Rs 41,420 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 10,920 crore (including Rs 995 crore collected on import of goods). Among larger states, Karnataka registered the highest year-on-year increase of 45% in collection followed by Tamil Nadu (34%), Kerala (29%), West Bengal (28%), Haryana (27%) and Telangana (26%).

5.83 cr ITR filed till Jul 31, record 72.42L on last day    
A record 72.42 lakh income tax returns (ITR) were filed on the last day of filing on July 31, taking the cumulative returns to 5.83 crore, near to the same levels as last year. Initially ITR filing was slow, pace picked up as the deadline neared. “Surge of filing ITRs peaked on July 31, 2022 (due date for salaried taxpayers and other non-tax audit cases) with over 72.42 lakh ITRs filed on a day,” an official statement said.