NEW DELHI: India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in March 2021 has set a new record on the backdrop of a rapid economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and a strict lockdown necessitated by it.
GST revenue for February, which was collected in March, stood at Rs 1.24 crore, which was 9.7 per cent higher than the previous month and 27 per cent increase over the previous year.
This was also the sixth consecutive month that the GST revenue has stayed above Rs 1 lakh crore. The government also attributed the enhanced collections to stricter compliance through e-invoicing, which had made it difficult to evade taxes.
“Revenues during March 2021 are the highest since the introduction of GST. In line with the trend of recovery in the GST revenues over the past five months, GST revenues for March 2021 were 27 per cent higher than the revenues in the same month last year,” the ministry of finance said in a statement.
According to the finance ministry, 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 the last few months.
Of the total revenue collected, Central GST was at Rs 22,973 crore, State GST came in at Rs 29,329 crore, Integrated GST at Rs 62,842 crore (including Rs 31,097 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess was Rs 8,757 crore (including Rs 935 crore collected on import of goods).
Among states, the maximum year-on-year growth in revenue collection, during the month under review, was recorded by Manipur (40 per cent), followed by Arunachal Pradesh (38 per cent), Tripura (31 per cent) and Jammu & Kashmir (27 per cent).
Odisha recorded a growth of 25 per cent. (see chart). GST collection of more than a lakh crore for six straight months helped the government to mop up Rs 11.37 lakh crore in the year 2020-21, which is a contraction of seven per cent when compared to Rs 12.22 lakh crore collected during 2019-20. Considering the strict lockdown, however, this number is much higher than anticipated.
