NEW DELHI: Aggressive tax collection, festive season buying, and increased domestic activity pushed up the Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue by 15% to Rs 1.68 lakh crore in November, government data showed. It is the highest growth rate for any month so far in FY24.
GST revenue in the same month a year ago was Rs 1.45 lakh crore. While this is 2% lower than the October collection of Rs 1.72 lakh crore, it is the ninth straight month that the monthly collections have exceeded Rs 1.5 lakh crore and the sixth time in FY24 it is crossing the Rs 1.60 lakh crore mark.
Explaining the robust numbers, Vivek Jalan, partner, Tax Connect Advisory Services, said the deadline for issuing notices for 2017-18 and 2018-19 has passed, leading to increased activity and revenue in GST departments.
According to him, state GST departments are competing with each other to generate higher revenues, and the central GST department is also working aggressively. “For example, Telangana would always try to compete with West Bengal and hold that even though its consumers are much less than West Bengal, its GST collection is higher. The central GST department has also been aggressive on the revenue front,” said Jalan.
Pratik Jain, partner, PwC India, attributes the growth in GDP collection to festive season activity and tighter audits. “Robust growth in GST is seen in most of the manufacturing states, which is indicative of uplift in demand and consumption,” he said.