The Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue has almost touched the Rs 1.2 lakh crore mark

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue during the month of January is the highest since the introduction of GST, and has almost touched the Rs 1.2 lakh crore mark, the Ministry of Finance said on Sunday.

This month’s GST revenue exceeded the last month’s record collection of Rs 1.15 lakh crore. As per an official release, the gross GST revenue collected in the month of January 2021 till 6 pm on January 31 is Rs 1,19,847 crore, which includes– Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) of Rs 21,923 crore, State Goods and Services Tax State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) of Rs 29,014 crore, Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) of Rs 60,288 crore (including Rs 27,424 crore collected on import of goods), and Cess of Rs 8,622 crore (including Rs 883crore collected on import of goods).

“The total number of GSTR-3B returns filed for the month of December 2020 up to January 31, 2021, is 90 lakhs,” the ministry said.

It further informed that in line with the trend of recovery in the GST revenues over the past five months, the revenues for the month of January 2021 are 8 per cent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year, which in itself was more than Rs 1.1 lakh crore.

“During the month, revenues from import of goods were 16 per cent higher and the revenues from the domestic transaction (including import of services) are 6 per cent higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year,” it said.

The ministry further said that the government has settled Rs 24,531 crore to CGST and Rs 19,371 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement, and the total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after regular settlement in the month of January 2021 is Rs 46,454 crore for CGST and Rs 48,385 crore for the SGST.

“GST revenues above Rs 1 lakh crore for a stretch of last four months and a steep increasing trend over this period are clear indicators of rapid economic recovery post-pandemic. Closer monitoring against fake-billing, deep data analytics using data from multiple sources including GST, Income-tax and Customs IT systems and effective tax administration have also contributed to the steady increase in tax revenue over last few months,” the ministry stated.

Notably, the average year-on-year growth in GST revenue over the first four months in the second half of the financial year has been 8 per cent as compared to negative 24 per cent during the first half of the year.