GST collection falls below Rs 95,000 crore in December

New Delhi: The Centre saw its GST mop up fall for the second straight month  as it managed to collect Rs 94,726 crore in December, In November, it had moped up Rs 97,637 crore.

The GST collection, which crossed  Rs 1 lakh crore in October, had averaged around Rs 89,885 crore per month in the last fiscal (July 2017-March 2018).

In coming months, however, there would be increased pressure on collections as the GST Council, in its previous meeting, reduced tax on 23 goods and services effectively from January 1.

The reduction, which  would have an annual revenue implication of Rs 5,500 crore, would create a revunue loss of about Rs 1,375 crore in the remaining three months of the current fiscal (January-March).

In a statement, the finance ministry said that of the Rs 94,726 crore collected, Central GST (CGST) collection was Rs 16,442 crore, State GST (SGST) was Rs 22,459 crore, Integrated GST (IGST) was Rs 47,936 crore and cess was Rs 7,888 crore.

The government has settled Rs 18,409 crore to CGST and Rs 14,793 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement, it said.  

The total revenue earned by the Central government and  state governments after regular settlement in December was Rs 43,851 crore for CGST and Rs 46,252 crore for SGST, the ministry added.

The December revenue collections reflect the purchase and sales activities conducted in November.

In the nine months (April-December) of the current fiscal, the government has mopped up over Rs 8.71 lakh crore from GST.

The 2018-19 budget had estimated annual GST collection at Rs 13.48 lakh crore, which means a monthly target of Rs 1.12 lakh crore. Compliance, however, improved during the month as the total number of sales returns or GSTR-3B filed in December stood at 72.44 lakh, as against 69.6 lakh filed in November.

In an another development, the Centre has notified new annual GST return forms, which are required to be filed by businesses registered under the GST regime by June 30, 2019.