GST collection reaches Rs7.4 lakh cr

The government has collected Rs 7.41 lakh crore in taxes in the first year of the goods and services tax (GST) with revenues for the first four months of 2017-18 not being accounted for because of a mid-year rollout. An average monthly collection from August to March was Rs. 89,885 crore.

“To achieve the budget target of GST revenues for financial year 2018-19, a growth of around 24 per cent would need to be achieved over the average monthly collection for 2017-18, which is reported at about Rs 90,000 crore. While the growth envisaged is quite steep, the same may still be possible with e-way bills being in place and introduction of other anti-evasion measures such as TDS/TCS etc,” Abhishek Jain, tax partner at EY India, said.

Currently, GST collections are accounted for only after returns are filed by the third week of the following month.

From fiscal 2018-19, the government is shifting to a cash basis of accounting where the revenues accrued at the completion of a month would be taken on record. Accordingly, the collection for April is likely to be released on May 1.

At the end of March, the Centre has Rs 20,000 crore in its cess pool, which will be utilised to compensate the states for revenue loss, an official said.

“The collection for March is set to exceed Rs 1 lakh crore. After the introduction of e-way bill from April 1, one could expect the revenue buoyancy to continue,” Pratik Jain, leader & partner (indirect taxes) at PwC, said.