GST revenues dip to ₹91,916 crores, give less room for enhancements

In what could be construed as yet another signal of economic slowdown, the GST collections for the month of September 2019 fell to a 19-month low of ₹91,916 crores, as against ₹98,202 crore in the preceding month.

“The total gross GST revenue collected in the month of September, 2019 is Rs 91,916 crore of which CGST is Rs 16,630 crore, SGST is Rs 22,598 crore, IGST is Rs 45,069 crore (including Rs 22,097 crore collected on imports) and cess is Rs 7,620 crore (including Rs 728 crore collected on imports),” the Finance Ministry said in a release.

The figures are down by 2.67 per cent from last September’s collections of ₹94,442 crores.

During April-September, the domestic component has grown by 7.82 per cent, while the GST on imports has shown negative growth and the total collection has grown by 4.90 per cent, it added.

The release also put the total number of GSTR-3B returns for month of August 2019 at 75.94 lakh.

A rough back of envelope calculation shows that in order to achieve the growth targets envisaged in the Budget document, the GST collection should be in excess of about ₹105,000 crores every month.

But this continuous shortfall in revenues over the last few months indicates the lack of room with the government to make adjustments on its fiscal position and also indicates the overall slump in the economy.

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