Strong demand and better compliance helped collection from Goods & Services Tax (GST) in May to reach ₹1.57-lakh crore. Though it is 12 per cent higher than last May, sequentially it is 16 per cent lower than April 2023’s collection. Experts expect collection to rise in coming months.

In a statement, the Finance Ministry said the monthly GST revenue stands at over ₹1.4-lakh crore for the 14th consecutive month.

During the month, revenue from import of goods was 12 per cent higher and the revenues from domestic transactions (including import of services) are 11 per cent higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.

Good economic performance

Commenting on the number, MS Mani, Partner with Deloitte India, said while the collections in absolute terms are lower than the previous month — which had an embedded year end impact — it reflects a continuation of the inherently good economic performance across States witnessed since last year.

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GST collection rises 12% to ₹1.57-lakh crore in May

Now eyes are on impact of special drive against fake assessees. Vivek Jalan, Partner with Tax Connect Advisory, expects with the clean-up drive for fake registrations kickstarting on May 16 and continuing upto July 15, “the impact of this may be seen in the upcoming months and may boost the domestic collectionsas the GST department go full hog to plug away evasions,” he said.

Parag Mehta, Partner, Indirect Tax with N.A. Shah Associates, says there has been substantial increase in scrutiny and audits along with effective use of AI which will result in higher collections in coming months. “It now appears that collections above ₹1.50-lakh crore will be the new norm,” he said

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