GST collections drop to Rs 97,637 crore in November

GST collection in November slipped from the Rs 1 lakh crore mark, a psychological benchmark, to clock Rs 97,637 crore, below estimates.
Image used for representational purpose.
Image used for representational purpose.

NEW DELHI: Unlike in October, the GST collection numbers for November hasn’t brought cheer to the government, which is staring at lower-than-estimated revenue, even as the fiscal deficit overshot budget estimates.

GST collection in November slipped from the Rs 1 lakh crore mark, a psychological benchmark, to clock Rs 97,637 crore, below estimates.

According to the Finance Ministry, 69.6 lakh GSTR-3B returns were filed till November 30, which included Rs 16,812 crore as Central GST (CGST), Rs 23,070 crore as State GST (SGST), Rs 49,726 crore as Integrated GST (IGST) and Rs 8,031 crore as cess.

While the CGST and SGST showed a marginal improvement over last month when they were Rs 16,464 crore and Rs 22,826 crore respectively, the shortfall in revenue was mainly on account of IGST, which was Rs 53,419 crore in October. The total cess collected in October was Rs 8,000 crore.

“The government has settled Rs 18,262 crore to CGST and Rs 15,704 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue earned by the Central and state governments after regular settlement in November is Rs 35,073 crore for CGST and Rs 38,774 crore for the SGST,” a Finance Ministry statement said, adding that Rs 11,922 crore has been released to the states as GST compensation for the months of August and September.

The fiscal deficit target for the 2018-19 fiscal has been breached, as the deficit for the first two quarters stood at Rs 6.49 lakh crore, 103.9 per cent of the budgeted target of Rs 6.24 lakh crore for FY19. A recent SBI research estimated index tax collections to fall by Rs 90,000 crore in the current financial year on subdued GST and cut in excise duty on petrol and diesel. It would be tough for the government to rein in fiscal deficit and its expenditure has already exceeded targets.

The Centre’s total GST collection stood at Rs 6.78 lakh crore till October, against the budgeted estimate of Rs 7.44 lakh crore. If the SGST and IGST are excluded, the collection will come to Rs 3.46 lakh crore, just 47 per cent of the budgeted estimated, SBI calculation showed.

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