GST collection up 6% in Nov, crosses Rs 1 trn after a gap of three months

The GST collection was Rs 95,380 crore in October while it was Rs 97,637 crore November 2018

GST collections crossed the Rs 1 trillion mark after a gap of three months in November, growing by 6 per cent to Rs 1.03 trillion aided by festival demand.

The GST collection stood at Rs 97,637 crore in the same month last year while revenue collection under this head was Rs 95,380 crore in October.

After two months of negative growth, GST revenues witnessed an impressive recovery with a positive growth of 6 per cent in November 2019 over November 2018 collections, an official statement said.

According to official sources, the number reflects pick up in consumption and improvement in compliance as well.

Non-intrusive means of tax collection has helped improved compliance, sources said.

During the month, the GST collection on domestic transactions witnessed a growth of 12 per cent, the highest during the year, it, said.

"Of gross Rs 1,03,492 crore in November, CGST is Rs 19,592 crore, SGST is Rs 27,144 crore, IGST is Rs 49,028 crore (including Rs 20,948 crore collected on imports) and Cess is Rs 7,727 crore (including Rs 869 crore collected on imports)," it said.

The statement further said that November 2019 collection is the third highest monthly collection since the introduction of GST, next only to April 2019 and March 2019 collections.

This is the eighth time since the inception of GST in July 2017 that monthly collection has crossed the mark of Rs 1 trillion.

After July this year, when GST collection was Rs 1,02,083 crore, it has crossed Rs 1 trillion in November.

The GST collection on imports continued to see negative growth at (-)13 per cent, but was an improvement over last month's growth of (-)20 per cent, the statement said.

The total number of GSTR 3B Returns filed for the month of October up to November 30, 2019 is 77.83 lakh, it said.

The government has settled Rs 25,150 crore to CGST and Rs 17,431 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement, it added.

The total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after regular settlement in the month of November is Rs 44,742 crore for CGST and Rs 44,576 crore for the SGST.

Commenting on the latest GST number, M S Mani, Partner, Deloitte India said crossing Rs 1 trillion in a festive month after few months of tepid collections would act as a sentiment booster.

It will help in keeping the fiscal deficit under control- hoping that this trend continues in the coming months.