GST collection in first 9 months of its roll out at Rs 7.41 trillion

Goods and services tax (GST) collection in the first nine months of its roll out during 2017-18 stood at Rs 7.41 trillion, even as average monthly collection turned out lower than initial targets of the government. 

The monthly average was Rs 890 billion, against the targeted Rs 920 billion. However, very close to the FY18 Revised Estimates (RE) of the Union Budget. GST was enforced from July 1.

The figures issued by the government on Friday comprised Central GST (CGST) and State GST (SGST) for August-March 2017-18 and integrated GST (IGST) and compensation cess for July-March. 

While the tax on domestic supplies in a month is collated through returns and gets collected the next month, the IGST and cess on import gets collected the same month. While the GST on domestic supplies was collected only from August 2017, IGST and cess on imports wa collected from July 2017.
 

"During 2017-18, total revenue collected was Rs 7.19 trillion," the finance ministry said. If one adds the cess and IGST collection for July, the total stood at Rs 7.41 trillion. 

This comprises Rs 1.19 trillion of CGST, Rs 1.72 trn of SGST, Rs 3.66 trn of IGST (including Rs 1.73 trillion on imports) and Rs 620.21 billion of cess (including Rs 57.02 billion on import).

Revised Estimates in the Budget pegged collection at Rs 4.44 trillion. Actuals released by the government on Friday showed the Centre's collections at Rs 4.5 trillion.

The government has achieved the RE target on indirect tax collection for 2017-18, an official said. 

The Centre's GST revenue target for 2018-19 is Rs 7.43 trillion. "To achieve the estimated Budget target, growth of approximately 24 per cent would need to be achieved over the average monthly collection for FY18, which is reported at about Rs 900 billion," said Abhishek Jain, Tax Partner at consultancy EY India. 
 

While the growth envisaged is steep, it could be possible with e-way bills and introduction of other anti-evasion measures, such as tax deducted at source and tax collected at source, he added.

At the end of March, the Centre had a surplus of Rs 200 billion in its cess pool, to be utilised to compensating for states' revenue loss, an official said.
 

On inter-state movement of goods, as well as import, an IGST is levied, which accrues to Centre and states. A cess is levied on top of GST on the 'sin' and luxury goods, to compensate states for revenue shortfall due to implementation of GST, at the level of 14 per cent growth over base year 1collection in 2015-16.