Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections for December (till 25th) stood at ₹80,808 crore, official data showed.
At this stage, this gross GST collection level is lower than the November 2017 (up to November 27) collection level of ₹83,346 crore.
Official data released today for December related to GST of November, but paid in December. Taxpayers are allowed to fulfil their GST liability for a month by the 20th of the next month, explained tax experts.
Till December 25, as many as 99.01 lakh taxpayers have registered under GST, of which 16.60 lakh are composition dealers, who are required to file returns every quarter.
As many as 53.06 lakh returns have been filed for the month of November till December 25, an official release said.
The categoriesOf the ₹80,808 crore collected under GST for the month of December (up to 25th December), ₹13,089 crore was collected as CGST, ₹18,650 crore was collected as SGST, ₹41,270 crore as IGST and ₹7,798 croreas Compensation cess, the release added.
Further, ₹10,348 crore is being transferred from IGST to CGST account and ₹14,488 crore transferred from IGST to SGST account by way of settlement of funds of cross utilisation of IGST credit for payment of CGST and SGST respectively or due to inter State B2C transactions.
Thus, a total amount of ₹24,836 crore is being transferred from IGST to CGST/SGST account by way of settlement.
Thus, the total collection of CGST and SGST for the month of December, 2017 (up to 25th) is ₹23,437 crore and ₹33,138 crore respectively, including transfers by way of settlement, the release said. Pratik Jain, Leader-indirect Tax, PwC, said that the dip in collection in revenue for November (collected by exchequer in December) is on expected lines, as rates of over 175 items were reduced from November 15 and refunds to exporters started recently.
“Even for December, there could be an impact of opening credit claim for which the last date is December 27. From January onwards, the collections should stablise,” he said.
Abhishek Rastogi, Partner, Khaitan & Co, said, “There is a reason for this. First, the reduction of rate and second, utilisation of credits. The right number will be reflected in the last quarter of 2017-18 or may be the first quarter of the next financial year.
“The reduction was expected and the government had done these calculations. It is hoped that the compliances improve further so that the revenue is back on track.
“It should be noted that refunds to a very substantial extent have not been processed.
“The government should keep that number in mind before forecasting. It is hoped that the refund process is not slowed down due to decrease in collection.”
From July 1 to November 30 this year, the Central GST collections stood at ₹59,048 crore.
The aggregated integrated GST (iGST) collection till end November this year stood at ₹1,90,518 crore, including ₹90,038 crore collected through imports).
While State GST (SGST) collection stood at ₹87,888 crore, the total cess collected under GST stood at ₹30,224 crore, official sources said.