GST mop-up exceeds Rs 1 lakh crore in April; Finance Ministry says buoyancy reflects upswing in economy

The Ministry of Finance (MoF), on Tuesday, said that the total revenue collected under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), in April, surpassed Rs 1 lakh crore, a first as far as monthly collections go. The MoF is obviously going to town with the data – Finance Minister Arun Jaitley termed it a ’landmark achievement’. His ministry said that the buoyancy in tax collections reflects both an upswing in the economy and better compliance. The total revenue earned by central and the state governments after settlement, in April 2018, is Rs 32,493 crore and Rs 40,257 crore respectively.

GST collections in April exceeding Rs. 1 lakh crore is a landmark achievement and a confirmation of increased economic activity as brought out by other reports

— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) May 1, 2018

April was also the month for filing of quarterly Return for composition dealers.Out of 19.31 lakh composition dealers,11.47 lakh filed their quarterly return(GSTR 4) which is 59.40% & paid total tax of Rs.579 crores, which is included in Rs.1.03 lakh crore of total GST collection

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) May 1, 2018

According to ANI, total gross GST revenue collected in April 2018 is Rs 1,03,458 crore of which Central Goods & Services Tax (CGST) is Rs 18,652 crore, State Goods & Services Tax (SGST) is Rs 25,704 crore, Integrated Goods & Services Tax (IGST) is Rs. 50,548 crore (including 21,246 crore collected on imports) and cess is Rs.8554 crore (including Rs.702 crore collected on imports). Experts’ take The rise in GST revenue could also be linked to the rollout of e-way bills, according to experts. The e-way bill or the electronic-way bill, branded as a major anti-evasion measure, captures a vehicle’s details from pickup to delivery. [caption id=“attachment_4261549” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] “Undoubtedly, the impact of e-way bill can be seen from the figures of GST revenue collection. It was highly expected that e-way bill being the strong pillar of GST would raise the revenue after implementation as the chances of evasion would be reduced to a significant extent after its rollout. Since the monthly revenue has exceeded Rs one lakh crore for the first time since the inception of GST, we can expect more increase," Vishal Raheja, DGM GST, Taxmann, a publisher of tax and corporate laws, told Firstpost. Abhishek Jain, Tax Partner, EY, said that “the GST revenue collections in April have shown a phenomenal buoyancy as compared to the collections in previous months, which is very encouraging. With anti-evasion measures like e-way bill already introduced and others like TDS, TCS and credit matching which may get introduced in the coming months, the Government could be hopeful of very good GST collections in the current fiscal year i.e. 2018-19.” Pratik Jain, Partner and Leader, Indirect Tax, PwC India, said: “As expected the GST collection crossed one lakh crore mark for the first time since GST came in. Though, there would be some impact of [the] year-end push and adjustments, it is clear that compliance is steadily improving. With the introduction of [the] e-way bill system now, one can expect the collection for April also to exceed one lakh crore. “While the filing of 3B returns have improved and touched almost 70 percent, for composition dealers this continues to be less than 60 percent. With only Rs 579 crore coming from these dealers, Government might want to investigate it in detail. All eyes to the upcoming GST council meeting on 4 May wherein the new return mechanism is expected to be announced.”

Sandeep Chilana, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, said: “GST collections for the month of March 2018 shows buoyance and increasing acceptance for compliances under GST laws. With anti-evasion mechanisms such as e-way bills becoming mandatory from April 1 2018, it is expected that the Rs 1 lakh crore benchmark would be sustainable in the coming months_.”_

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Earlier, Parag Mehta, Partner, NA Shah Associates LLP, said: “The government has collected 7.19 lakh crore under GST for the first nine months of FY 2017-18… In the initial period, the average compliance level was 55 percent…” “With the GSTN system working smoothly and no hindrances for generating e-way bills the compliance level should increase further. With many states introducing the intra-state generation of e-way bills for movement of goods, evasion is bound to reduce, eventually increasing the revenue. Earlier it was felt by the authorities that GST is like an elephant in the room and nobody knew in which direction it is moving. However, the stability and collections reflect the general perception that GST is moving in the right direction. With an increase in assesses and more simplification expected in the Council meeting on 4 May, there is a general perception for the increase in revenue for FY 2018-19,” Mehta added.