GST collection in November crosses Rs 1 lakh crore mark for second time since April

Gross GST revenue collection in November stood at nearly Rs 1.05 lakh crore, an official statement said on Tuesday.

The revenues for the month of November 2020 were 1.4 per cent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year.

During the month, revenues from import of goods was 4.9 per cent higher and the revenues from domestic transaction, including import of services, are 0.5 per cent higher that the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.

The total goods and services tax collected includes Central GST (CGST) of Rs 19,189 crore, State GST (SGST) of Rs 25,540 crore and Integrated GST (IGST) of Rs 51,992 crore.

"The gross GST revenue collected in the month of November, 2020 is Rs 1,04,963 crore of which CGST is Rs 19,189 crore, SGST is Rs 25,540 crore, IGST is Rs 51,992 crore (including Rs 22,078 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is Rs 8,242 crore (including Rs 809 crore collected on import of goods)," said the Finance Ministry statement.

The total number of GSTR-3B returns filed for the month of November 30, 2020 was 82 lakh.

The government has settled Rs 22,293 crore to CGST and Rs 16,286 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue earned by the Central government and the State governments after regular settlement in the month of November 2020 is Rs 41,482 crore for CGST and Rs 41,826 crore for the SGST.

"While the mild month-on-month dip in the headline GST collections in November 2020 relative to the previous month is discouraging, the sharp decline in their YoY growth in between these two months can be attributed to the base effect, related to the shift in the festive dates," said Aditi Nayar, Principal Economist, ICRA.

"On a positive note, the average pace of growth in GST collections in October-November 2020 stood at a moderately healthy 6 per cent. The trends regarding the sustainability of demand will be clearer in the data on the GST collections for December 2020, which will be for the transactions that took place in the month of November 2020."

According to M.S. Mani, Senior Director, Deloitte India: "The trend of improved collections three months in a row points to stability returning in economic activities across the country and it is expected that this trend is sustainable in the coming months."

"However, there is a decline in collections in key states such as Maharashtra, UP, Delhi, Karnataka, Telengana which could indicate that the revival in economic activities has not been uniform across the country as Gujarat, AP, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha have recorded increase in collections during the same period."