Revenue collection from Goods and Services Tax (GST) declined to Rs 97,637 crore in November from Rs 1 lakh crore a month ago, data released by the finance ministry showed.
Out of the total collection, Central
GST (CGST) was Rs 16,812 crore, with states garnering Rs 23,070 crore State GST (SGST). At least Rs 8,031 crore was received as cess, with Rs 49,726 crore collected as Integrated GST (IGST), which is levied on inter-state supply of goods and services and is divided between states and the Centre.
The total number of GSTR 3B or summary form-based returns filed for the month of October up to November 30, was 69.6 lakh, higher than 67.5 lakh a month ago.
For the bi-monthly period August-September, compensation of Rs 11,922 crore has been released to the states.
The government has set a target of over Rs 12 lakh crore for the financial year 2018-19, which can be achieved if the average monthly mop up is around Rs 1 lakh crore, as compared with Rs 89,885 crore in 2017-18.
Till now (April-November), the government has collected Rs 7.76 lakh crore revenue from GST. Achieving the revenue collection target is crucial as it has a direct bearing on the fiscal deficit, which is a gap between government’s revenue and expenditure.
In the last eight months, tax mop-up has crossed Rs 1 lakh crore twice — in April and October. While revenue in April was higher as businesses generally pay arrears for some of the previous months, mop-up in October was Rs 1 lakh crore due to the onset of the festive season.
Traditionally, the government garners maximum tax during the third quarter (October-September) of any financial year as consumption picks up substantially during the festive season.
“The lower-than-expected GST collections during this fiscal provides very little elbow room for any further rate reductions in the current fiscal, considering the need to stick to the fiscal deficit targets,” M S Mani, Partner, Deloitte India said.
Source: moneycontrol.com