At a time when the government is struggling with revenue collections, October and November have seen decent growth in GST collections, signalling the recovery in the economy.
The government collected GST revenue of more than Rs 1 lakh crore for the second consecutive month in November 2020. GST collections stood at 1.05 lakh crore in the month, according to the Ministry of Finance. At a time when the government is struggling with revenue collections, October and November have seen decent growth in GST collections, signalling the recovery in the economy. Out of the total collection, the government garnered a CGST of Rs 19,189 crore, SGST of Rs 25,540 crore, IGST of Rs 51,992 crore, and Cess of Rs 8,242crore. The total number of GSTR-3B returns filed for the month of November stood at 82 lakhs.
In line with the recent trend of recovery in the GST revenues, the revenues for the month of November are 1.4 per cent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year. During the month, revenues from import of goods were 4.9 per cent higher and the revenues from the domestic transaction were 0.5 per cent higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year. The government has settled Rs 22,293 crore to CGST and Rs 16,286 crore to SGST from IGST as a regular settlement. Further, the total revenue earned by the central government and the state governments after regular settlement stood at Rs 41,482 crore for CGST, and Rs 41,826 crore for the SGST.
“Gross GST collections have again crossed the barrier of Rs 1 lakh crore in the pandemic period, which indicates that businesses are back on the recovery path,” Rajat Mohan, Senior Partner, AMRG & Associates, told Financial Express Online. However, improvement in tax collections compared to last year is a meager 1.4 per cent, which falls short of the 14 per cent projected nominal growth rate of revenue promised to states during the transition period, which is not a good sign for the central government, Rajat Mohan added.
(With inputs from agencies)