GST collections in April touch all-time high of Rs 1.68 lakh crore

GST collections in April high of Rs 1.68 lakh crore

02/05/2022
New Delhi: Goods and services tax (GST) collections hit an all-time high of ₹1.68 lakh crore in April, indicating strong economic activity despite multiple headwinds and better tax compliance. The April number is up 20% from the year earlier and ₹25,000 crore more than the previous highest of ₹1.42 lakh crore in March this year.

"Total number of e-waybills generated in the month of March 2022 was 7.7 crore, which is 13% higher than 6.8 crore e-way bills generated in the month of February 2022, which reflects recovery of business activity at faster pace," a finance ministry statement said on Sunday.

The ministry also attributed the jump in the returns filed to "strict enforcement action taken against errant taxpayers identified based on data analytics and artificial intelligence."

In April 2022, 10.6 million GST returns were filed compared with 9.2 million in the year earlier.

₹57,847 cr Collected on Apr 20

The government expects the average monthly collection to be higher than ₹1.40 lakh crore for the first quarter of this fiscal.

"The all-time high magnitude of inflows is very enthusing, and augurs well for a robust year on year growth in the months ahead as well," said ICRA chief economist Aditi Nayar. "This is also evidence of a healthy pace of economic activity in March 2022 in spite of the escalating geopolitical conflict." The highest-ever GST collection in a single day took place on April 20 - ₹57,847 crore through 958,000 transactions.

For the March quarter, the average monthly GST collection stood at ₹1.38 lakh crore. "Sincerely recognise and appreciate the efforts made by each and every state in improving GST revenue collection. India's economic recovery is sure to be on a sustained path due to all our efforts," finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted.

"Clear proof that Indian economy is firing on all cylinders!" said Hardeep Singh Puri, minister of petroleum and natural gas.

Apart from the usual rise in collections in April, the rule that input tax credit will be available only upon timely compliance by the vendors also boosted returns, experts said. "The impact of the continuing focus on ensuring timely compliance by all GST registrants by restricting the input tax credits of the buyers together with enhanced analytics to detect evasion has also contributed significantly to the all-time high collections reported," said Deloitte India partner MS Mani.

Of the total, central GST amounted to ₹33,159 crore, state GST was ₹41,793 crore, integrated GST was ₹81,939 crore while ₹36,705 crore was collected on import of goods. Cess collection was ₹10,649 crore, including ₹857 crore on import of goods. The government has settled ₹33,423 crore toward central GST and ₹26,962 crore toward state GST from the integrated GST

Team Edu-Visor