GST collection passes Rs1 lakh crore for second month in a row

Ministry of Finance on January 1, 2019, released government data on GST Revenue Collection for December 2019. According to the data, the gross GST revenue collected in December rose to Rs1,03,184 crore.

This is the second month in a row when the GST collections crossed Rs1 lakh crore mark. The GST collections in November 2019 stood at Rs1,03,492 crore, which means there is a 0,30 per cent decline in the revenue. Contribution to GST collection:

CGST: Rs19,962 crore

SGS: Rs26,792 crore

IGST: Rs48,099 crore (including Rs21,295crore collected on imports)

Cess: Rs 8,331crore (including Rs847crore collected on imports).

This is the fifth time in a financial year that the GST collections rose above the Rs1 lakh crore mark. The five months when the collection crossed the mark are April, May, July, November and December. The government needs an average monthly collection of more than Rs 1 lakh crore every month to meet its budget target.

Besides, there is a 9 per cent growth in the revenues on a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis. The GST collections of December 2018 stood at Rs94,726 crore.

The GST revenues during December 2019 from domestic transactions showed a growth of 16% over the revenue during December 2018. Such improvements in tax collections lowers the risk of fiscal slippage at a time when the economy is slowing down and struggling against the slowest pace of development in more than six years.

The total number of GSTR 3B Returns filed for November up to December 31, 2019, is 81.21lakh.

The Ministry in its release said, the government has settled Rs21,814 crore to CGST and Rs15,366 crore to CGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue earned by the central government and the state governments after regular settlement in December 2019 is Rs41,776 crore for CGST and Rs42,158 crore for the SGST. It also says "During this month, the IGST on import of goods has seen a negative growth of (-) 10%, but is an improvement over (-) 13% last month and (-) 20% in October".