Festival fizz set to boost GST mop-up in Oct; Sept figure at ₹1.47 L Cr

GST collections remained above ₹1.40 lakh-crore for the seventh month in a row at ₹1.47 lakh-crore in September, a 26 per cent increase over last year, reflecting buoyancy in tax collection and stability of the GST portal, the Finance Ministry said on Saturday.  

With the ongoing festival season, the collections are expected to go up in the coming months, experts said.

“The gross GST revenue collected in the month of September 2022 is ₹1,47,686 crore, of which Central GST is ₹25,271 crore, State GST is ₹31,813 crore, Integrated GST is ₹80,464 crore (including ₹41,215 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is ₹10,137 crore (including ₹856 crore collected on import of goods),” the Finance Ministry said.

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The GST collections had touched a record ₹1.67 lakh-crore in April, while in August it was over ₹1.43 lakh-crore.

Sharp increase from last year

The revenues for the month of September 2022 were 26 per cent higher than those recorded in the same month last year. During the month, revenues from import of goods were 39 per cent higher, while from domestic transactions (including import of services) the mop-up was 22 per cent more than the amount collected from these sources in the year-ago month.

The growth in GST revenue till September 2022 over the same period last year is 27 per cent, thus continuing to display very high buoyancy.

In August 2022, a total of 7.7 crore e-way bills were generated, which was marginally higher than 7.5 crore in July 2022.

The month witnessed the second highest single day collection of ₹49,453 crore on September 20 with second highest number of 8.77 lakh challans filed, next only to ₹57,846 crore collected on July 20, 2022 through 9.58 lakh challans, which pertained to end of the year returns.

“This clearly shows that the GST portal maintained by GSTN has fully stabilised and is glitch-free,” the ministry said.

During September, more than 1.1 crore e-way bills and e-invoices combined were generated without any glitch on the portal run by NIC.

Infrastructure stability 

EY India Tax Partner Saurabh Agarwal said the generation of 1.1 crore e-way bills and e-invoicing in a single day showcases a stability in the IT infrastructure of NIC (National Informatics Centre).

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“However, it’s important for the big businesses to move to private Invoice Registration Portals appointed by the government in order to share the load of data which is likely to be increased due to increase in number of assesses liable to generate e-invoices from 1 October 2022,” Agarwal said.

KPMG in India Partner Indirect Tax Abhishek Jain said the collections in September reflect supplies made in August. “With the festival season coming up, the GST collections can further be expected to go up in the coming months,” Jain added.

Stock build-up

Deloitte India Partner, Leader Indirect Tax Mahesh Jaising said, the key contributors appear to be the expansion in usage of e-invoicing and e-way bills, use of analytics for audits and also the increase in imports with the upcoming festival seasons, as businesses build up stocks.

“With the pandemic behind us, further reduction in e-invoicing threshold from October 1, 2022 and the recent amendments to extend year-end compliance due dates, we expect the last quarter of 2022 to witness even higher collections,” Jaising added.

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NA Shah Associates Partner, Indirect Tax, Parag Mehta said the major reasons were pick-up in sales due to festive seasons. In September and October due to festivals like Navratri, Dussehra and Diwali, the spending is usually high.

“Further, the level of compliance has increased substantially and the department has also been making the best use of data available with them. Further, this is also the effect of withdrawals of various exemptions etc. Hopefully the trend should continue for ongoing months also. It appears that GST is finally stabilising,” Mehta added. 

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(With agency inputs)