GST Collections Rise 13 pc to Rs 1.72 Lakh Cr in October; Second Highest-ever

New Delhi: GST collections increased 13 per cent to Rs 1.72 lakh crore in October, the second highest-ever, helped by momentum in the economy, efforts of taxmen in checking evasion and festive demand."GST revenue collection for October 2023 is second highest ever, next only to April 2023, at Rs 1.72 lakh crore; records increase of 13 per cent Y-o-Y," the finance ministry said in a statement.

The highest-ever revenue from Goods and Services Tax (GST) was recorded in April 2023 at Rs 1.87 lakh crore, while in September, it was Rs 1.63 lakh crore.

The average gross monthly GST collection in the current fiscal has also shown an 11 per cent growth year-on-year at Rs 1.66 lakh crore.
Icra Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said GST collections benefited from quarter-end adjustments related to transactions in the previous month and the overall momentum in the economy.

"With this, the pace of YoY growth jumped to a 10-month high in October 2023, which is encouraging. At present, we project the CGST collections to mildly exceed the FY2024 BE," Nayar said.

During October, revenue from domestic transactions was 13 per cent higher year-on-year.

The gross GST revenue collected in October 2023 is Rs 1,72,003 crore, out of which Rs 30,062 crore is Central GST, Rs 38,171 crore is State GST, Rs 91,315 crore (including Rs 42,127 crore collected on import of goods) is Integrated GST, and Rs 12,456 crore (including Rs 1,294 crore collected on import of goods) is cess.

The government has settled Rs 42,873 crore to CGST and Rs 36,614 crore to SGST from IGST.

The total revenue of the Centre and states in October after regular settlement is Rs 72,934 crore for CGST and Rs 74,785 crore for SGST.
NA Shah Associates Partner, Indirect Tax Parag Mehta said one of the reasons for the rise in collection is the time barring period for the 2017-18 fiscal.

"Spate of notices, anti-evasion drive, DGGST investigations etc. have led to substantial collections. Further, the period from September to December is a festive period where consumer spending is substantial on high-value items like real estate, vehicles, gold, and travel.

"The collections are bound to increase substantially again with the annual returns etc. for FY 2022-23 being filed," Mehta said.

Deloitte India Partner MS Mani said the remarkable growth in GST collections over the past few months is not only on account of the underlying strong economic factors but also due to the efforts of the tax authorities in deploying tools to compare data sets to determine short payment and evasion.

KPMG Indirect Tax Head and Partner Abhishek Jain said a mid-year collection of such an increased number is definitely worth a cheer, and the ongoing festivities-driven consumption could help this continue.

EY Tax Partner Saurabh Agarwal said with the stable collection, the government can now consider rate rationalisation as the next task.