Avg monthly GST mop-up at Rs 1.66 trn so far this fiscal: FM Sitharaman

The GST collection has been showing an upward trend on an annual basis since its rollout on July 1, 2017, and the average gross monthly mop-up in the current fiscal so far is Rs 1.66 lakh crore, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, she said the GST collection crossed Rs 1.50 lakh crore mark in every month of the current fiscal and had touched a record high of Rs 1.87 lakh crore in April 2023.

"GST collection has been showing an upward trend on year-on-year basis since the implementation of GST w.e.f. 1st July, 2017... The average gross monthly GST collection in FY 2023-24 now stands at Rs 1.66 lakh crore and is 11 per cent more than that in the same period in the previous financial year," Sitharaman said.

The average monthly Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in 2022-23 was over Rs 1.50 lakh crore, higher than Rs 1.23 lakh crore in 2021-22. In 2020-21, the average monthly mop-up was Rs 94,734 crore.

In reply to a separate question, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the monthly average gross GST collection for 2021-22 and 2022-23 have shown 30 per cent and 22 per cent year-on-year growth respectively.

"GST is paid on self-assessment basis and tax administration at Central and State level is empowered to take action against cases where GST is not paid and short paid. Detection of such cases and recovery of taxes not paid or short paid is a continuous process," Chaudhary said.

He said the government, on the recommendation of the GST Council, has been bringing several reforms in GST and these measures would improve the GST compliance and increase the GST collection.

These include structural changes like calibration of GST rates for correcting inverted duty structure and pruning of exemptions; measures for improving tax compliance such as mandating e-way bill, ITC matching, mandating e-invoice, deployment of artificial intelligence and machine-based analytics, aadhaar authentication for registration, calibrated action on non-filers, stop filers.

Also, system-based analytical tools and system-generated red flag reports are being shared with central as well as state tax authorities to take action against tax evaders.

In reply to another question, Chaudhary said the central government, on the recommendation of GST Council, has constituted State Benches of GST Appellate Tribunal.

Giving details of the number of pending appeals over tax demands raised by Central GST authorities, Chaudhary said 14,897 appeals are pending as on October 31, 2023. This is higher than 11,899 appeals pending as of March 31, 2023.