GST collected in April tops Rs 1 trillion, govt says don't expect trend

Revenue collection from Goods and Services Tax crossed Rs 1 trillion in April, the highest since the rollout of the new indirect tax in July last year. 

Gross GST revenue collected in the month of April stood at Rs 1.03 trillion, according to official data released by the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday. 

"The buoyancy in GST revenue reflects an upswing in the economy and better compliance," the government said in a statement. 

However, the government clarified that the April collection cannot be taken as a trend for future months. "It is usually noticed that in the last month of the financial year, people also try to pay arrears of some of the previous months and, therefore, this month’s revenue cannot be taken as a trend for the future," it said. 

Central GST collected during the month stood at Rs 186.52 bn, State GST at Rs 257.04 bn,  Integrated GST at Rs 505.48 bn (including Rs 212.46 bn collected on imports) and that from Cess at Rs 85.54 bn.

Abhishek Jain, Partner, EY said that he expected revenues to be higher in 2018-19. "With anti-evasion measures like e-way bill already introduced and others like Tax Deducted at Source, Tax Collected at Source and credit matching which may get introduced in the coming months, the government could be hopeful of very good GST collections in the current fiscal year," he said. 

The Centre's GST revenue target for 2018-19 stands at Rs 7.43 trillion. 

Those under the composition scheme, availing quarterly filing and a flat tax rate, paid a tax of Rs 5.79 bn for the quarter. Of the 1.9 million dealers under the composition scheme, 1.1 million filed their quarterly return- GSTR 4. 

The total revenue earned by the central government and states after settlement in the month of April 2018 stood at Rs 324.93 bn and Rs 402.57 bn respectively.

India’s goods and services tax collections in the first year of rollout stood at Rs 7.41 trillion.