GST collections go up to ₹1.02L cr in July, but still fall short of target

Gross GST collections in July stood at ₹1.02 lakh crore, marginally up from June, official data showed on Thursday (August 1). The July 2019 mop-up was, however, 5.8 per cent higher than the ₹96,483 crore collected in the same month last year.

Even though the July’s collection was higher than ₹99,939 crore collected in June, it was ₹10,000 crore less than required collection to meet the target set for 2019-20. Due to the shortfall, now the government may have to raise ₹1.19 lakh crore in the remaining months to meet the target. In the Budget 2019, the government pegged the GST collection at ₹6.63 lakh crore for 2019-20

Revenue collection from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) had slipped below the ₹1 lakh crore mark for the first time in the current fiscal in June. Central GST collections stood at ₹17,912 crore, state GST at ₹25,008 crore, and Integrated GST at ₹50,612 crore (including ₹24,246 crore collected on imports) during July this year, a statement said.

It further said cess collection stood at ₹8,551 crore (including ₹797 crore collected on imports). The number of GSTR 3B returns (summary of self-assessed return) filed for the month of June up to end-July totalled 75.79 lakh.

As per the statement, ₹17,789 crore has been released to the states as GST compensation for April-May, 2019. The gross GST collections during April-July stood at ₹4,16,176 crore, up from ₹3,89,568 crore in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

GST, which was introduced two years ago, has subsumed most of the indirect taxes and other SOTR’ (State owned tax revenues).

(With inputs from agencies)