The total number of GSTR 3B or summary form-based returns filed for the month of November up to December 31 was 72.44 lakh, higher than 69.6 lakh a month ago.
Revenue collection from Goods and Services Tax (GST) fell to Rs 94,726 crore in December from Rs 97,637 crore a month ago,as per data released by the Finance Ministry on January 1.
Out of the total collection, Central GST (CGST) was Rs 16,442 crore, with states garnering Rs 22,459 crore State GST (SGST). At least Rs 7,888 crore was received as cess, with Rs 47,936 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 November up to December 31 was 72.44 lakh, higher than 69.6 lakh a month ago.
“While the December collections are lesser than November and October (where it exceeded 1 lakh crore), overall average collection for 2018-19 has shown marked improvement over 2017-18. This, coupled with decent growth in income tax collections, gives a clear indication that tax base is expanding. Next couple of months may also see similar collections and government may want to have a more realistic estimate of GST collection for next year. When the new compliance framework comes in from next year (pilot is expected from April 19) then the collections could improve again as there would be greater control over input credit claimed by businesses. We should also expect more enforcement and investigations cases in next few months,” said Pratik Jain, Partner and Leader, Indirect Tax, PwC India.
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-December), the government has collected Rs 8.71 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 nine 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-December) of any financial year as consumption picks up substantially during the festive season.
An expert said that lower revenue collection as compared with the target could lead to more compliance pressure on businesses and more focus on anti-evasion measures.
“The collections while admittedly are below the targets, seem to indicate that the revenues are stabilising around 95k crore per month, despite the rate reductions in the current fiscal. The revenues being lower than the targets could lead to more compliance pressures on businesses and more focus on anti-evasion measures,” said MS Mani, Partner, Deloitte India.
