Record Treasury collections, helped by year-end adjustments, a sign of a ‘faster recovery’
Record Treasury collections, helped by year-end adjustments, a sign of a ‘faster recovery’
India’s gross receipts from goods and services tax (GST) hit a new high of ₹1,67,540 crore in April, with receipts from imports of goods up 30% year-on-year and domestic transactions and imports of services up 17%.
Total GST revenue was 20% higher than a year ago and 17.9% higher than March 2022 collections of ₹1,42,095 crore. The Treasury said April revenue for transactions made in March reflected a “faster recovery” in business activity, with 7.7 million e-way bills generated in March, up 13% from February 2022. “For the first time Gross GST levy exceeded Rs 1.5 lakh crore mark,” it said.
“While GST earnings have always been strong in March, the record earnings are due to several favorable factors, including recent changes to permit input tax credits only upon timely vendor compliance,” said MS Mani, Partner at Deloitte India.
“Although the rise in GST receipts in April partially benefited from year-end adjustments, the all-time high in inflows is very encouraging and bodes well for robust year-on-year growth in the coming months,” said ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar, adding added that despite the escalating geopolitical conflict in Europe, there are indications of a healthy pace of economic activity in March.
Central GST receipts accounted for ₹33,159 billion of gross receipts from the tax in April, while state GST accounted for 41,793 crore and integrated GST for 81,939 crore, including 36,705 crore on imported goods.
GST Compensation Cess collections, used to compensate states, grew 13.08% to 10,649 crore in April versus March collections. Cess collections included £8.57bn levied on goods imported, down 8.9% from the £9.41bn collected on goods imported in March.
However, there were major differences in growth trends between states. While collections in Tamil Nadu increased by just 10% in April, collections in Maharashtra increased by 25%, Odisha by 28%, Haryana by 23% and Andhra Pradesh by 22%. Karnataka and Rajasthan saw a 19% increase in GST surveys, while the growth rate was 17% for Gujarat and 16% for Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
Six states and union territories reported year-over-year decreases in revenue, including Bihar (-2%), Manipur (-33%), Mizoram (-19%) and Tripura (-3%). GST inflows from Lakshwadeep fell 18% year-on-year, while those in Daman and Diu fell 78%.
“The Government has paid 33,423 crore to CGST and 26962 crore to SGST from IGST. The total revenue of the Center and States in the month of April 2022 after regular accounting is £66,582m for CGST and £68,755m for SGST,” the ministry said.
“This demonstrates a significant improvement in compliance behavior, which is the result of various actions by the tax administration to encourage taxpayers to file tax returns on time, to make compliance easier and smoother, and to take strict enforcement action against errant taxpayers found on the based on data analysis and artificial intelligence,” the ministry said in a statement.
