GST yields ₹92,283-crore revenue in July

The government’s gamble with Goods and Services Tax (GST) seems to have paid off as the indirect tax regime has yielded higher than expected revenue in the first month of its operations.

As many as 38.38 lakh businesses have filed GSTR- 3B for the month of July, paying ₹92,283 crore as tax. This is marginally higher than the ₹91,000 crore budgeted by the Centre and the States.

“We have already exceeded the target in the first month,” said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday, adding that the tax collection number would “somewhat increase” with more compliances.

Only 64.92 per cent of the eligible 59.57 lakh businesses have paid GST for the month of July and more are expected to pay. He, however, cautioned that the figures would see some adjustment as the compensation cess has to be removed from it.

“In sum total, we seem to be comfortable. But we will have to break up the figures and see if some State has not received the expected revenue. In that case, compensation will be given,” Jaitley said.

Quoting data up to 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Jaitley said the total revenue from Central GST is ₹14,894 crore and from State GST is ₹22,722 crore.

Collections from Integrated GST is ₹47,469 crore of which IGST from imports is ₹20,964 crore. Compensation cess amounts to another ₹7,198 crore of which ₹599 crore is compensation cess from imports.

The last date for filing the self assessment return for GST was August 28. A clearer picture on tax collections will be available later next month when final returns for July are filed.

A Finance Ministry statement said that the allocation of IGST between the Centre and the States will depend on the extent that it was used for payment of CGST and SGST.

“This exercise will be done based on the cross-utilisation report to be received from the GSTN,” it said, adding that the exact revenue figures of the Central and the State Governments respectively will be known after this exercise is complete before the end of this month.

Enrolments under GST have risen to 91.16 lakh. Jaitley said this includes 72.33 lakh taxpayers who have migrated and another 18.83 lakh new registrations.

The Minister, however, did not comment on the impact of the robust receipts on the fiscal deficit. “It is too early to comment. Not many people thought the red line would be crossed in the first month.

“We need to study the collections for a few more months,” he said.

The final returns for month of July will be filed next month. Filing of GSTR-1 for the month of July is scheduled between September 1 and 5, followed by filing of GSTR- 2 between September 6 and 10 and GSTR-3 between September 11 and 15.