India's Goods and Services Tax collections touched an all-time high of Rs 1.87 lakh crore for transactions in March, which has been outlined by experts as a fiscal-ending boom.
Clocking a 12% year-on-year growth, the month's collection beat the previously highest collection tally of Rs 1.67 lakh crore by a Rs 19,495 crore margin.
Here's a look at GST through the years and how the collections have fared on individual parameters:
Monthly collections had breached the Rs 1 lakh crore mark in 2018–19 but were set back by the pandemic. While 2021–22 was spent in recovery, the collections in 2022–23 have steadily remained above Rs 1.4 lakh crore, making it the new benchmark for monthly collections.
The year-on-year growth percentage will taper down from the 12% seen in April in the coming months, according to Aditi Nayar, chief economist with ICRA Ltd.
"While collections have maintained a healthy 11–13% growth in recent months, a normalising base and some cooling of inflation may moderate the pace of expansion slightly in the coming quarter, although it would remain in the high single digits," she said.
The average monthly gross GST collection for the last quarter of FY 2022–23 has been Rs 1.55 lakh crore, compared to an average monthly collection of Rs 1.51 lakh crore, Rs 1.46 lakh crore, and Rs 1.49 lakh crore in the first, second, and third quarters, respectively, according to government data.
State collections in April for Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra registered a 20% growth from the corresponding period last year.
Over the year, states have also received sums of GST compensation.
In February, after the 49th GST Council meeting, 23 states got Rs 16,982 crore pertaining to GST compensation for the month of June 2022. The amount marked the clearing of all 'provisionally admissible' compensation dues for the entirety of the compensation period.
GST compensation was agreed upon for the first five years of GST to help states make up for any loss in revenue due to the implementation. And compensation was calculated at a 14% per year revenue growth rate from the base year of 2015-16.
In February, a sum of Rs 16,524 crore was additionally released to six states and union territories—Delhi, Karnataka, Odisha, Puducherry, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu—on receipt of the revenue figures as certified by the accountant general of the states.
States would be cleared of all pending dues following the receipt of AG certificates for all five years.
Federal GST in the above figure is arrived at after IGST, or integrated GST, is settled between states. IGST is levied on all interstate supplies of goods and services across two or more states or Union Territories.
IGST will be applicable on any supply of goods and services in both cases of import into India and export from India.
Collections in March for transactions in February saw the highest collection on IGST from the import of goods. While collections regained their highest level for March, they saw a dip in IGST collection from the import of goods.
GST compensation cess, referred to as GST cess, is collected by the centre in addition to regular GST on luxury and demerit categories. It is levied to fund the compensation due to states for revenue losses in the first years of GST implementation.
The levy of the cess will be applicable until March 31, 2026.
Electronic way bills, or e-way bills, are documents generated for the movement of goods. It is required to be carried by a person in charge of the conveyance where the consignment of goods exceeds fifty thousand rupees in value.
The number of e-way bills recorded serves as an important indicator of the movement of goods and economic activity.
The total number of e-way bills generated in the month of March 2023 was 9.0 crore, which is 11% higher than the 8.1 crore e-way bills generated in the month of February 2023.
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