NEW DELHI: The Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection for August was recorded at Rs 93,960 crore, lower than the tax collected in July at Rs 96,483 crore and in June at Rs 95,610 crore.
Of this, Central Goods and Services Tax was Rs 15,303 crore, State Goods and Services Tax was Rs 21,154 crore, Integrated Goods and Services Tax was Rs 49,876 crore (including Rs 26,512 crore collected on imports) and Cess was Rs 7,628 crore (including Rs 849 crore collected on imports).
“The total number of GSTR 3B Returns filed from July 31 to August 31 this year is 67 lakh. This is slightly higher than 66 lakh returns filed from June to July 31,” said Finance Ministry statement. The lower collection is attributed to the last GST Council meeting on July 21 reducing slabs on a host of items. The notification of the reduced rates came into effect only from July 27, 2018.
“Even the past trend of indirect tax collection has shown that while July collections are 8.2 per cent of the total annual collections, August collections are at a lower level of 7.7 per cent. This is another reason for lower collections during August as compared to that in July,” the ministry said. In addition to this, GST collection from Kerala was not taken into account as the last date of filing returns for July had been extended up to October 5 for taxpayers in the state in the wake of recent floods there.