GST: March Sees Second Highest Collection At Rs 1.78 Lakh Crore
The surge was driven by a significant rise in GST collection from domestic transactions at 17.6%, a release said
The gross goods and services tax collections rose 11.5% year-on-year to Rs 1.78 lakh crore in March for transactions conducted in February, reflecting an increase as seen in the last quarter of every year.
The surge was driven by a significant rise in GST collection from domestic transactions at 17.6%, according to a release by the Finance Ministry on Monday.
GST revenue, net of refunds, for March 2024 is at Rs 1.65 lakh crore, which is a growth of 18.4% over the same period last year, it said.
The total gross GST collection in the full fiscal now stands at Rs 20.18 lakh crore. According to tax experts, the figure reflects the robustness of economic activity as well as the efficiency of tax administration and compliance by taxpayers.
For FY24, GST revenue net of refunds stood at Rs 18.01 lakh crore. This puts the average monthly collection at Rs 1.68 lakh crore, surpassing the previous year’s average of Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
Abhishek Jain, indirect tax head and partner at KPMG said that a 17.6% growth in collections in March from domestic transactions indicates strong domestic economic growth and adds significant cheer to the overall increased collections.
"The average monthly collections increasing by approximately Rs 18,000 crore this year indicates robust growth story and recovery,” he said.
The Fineprint
Gross GST revenue: Rs 1,78,484 crore.
Central GST: Rs 34,532 crore.
State GST: Rs 43,746 crore.
Integrated GST: Rs 87,947 crore, including Rs 40,322 crore collected on imports of goods.
Cess: Rs 12,259 crore, including Rs 996 crore collected on the import of goods.
Statewise Trends
Statewise trends indicate that Punjab (20%), Haryana(23%) and Delhi (20%) have recorded a growth of over 20% as compared with the corresponding period last year.
In actual terms, Maharashtra continued to dominate statewise collections at Rs 27,688 crore, growing 22% YoY from Rs 22,695 crore last March.
Karnataka and Gujarat followed Maharashtra, although in actual terms, they raked in collections of Rs 13,014 crore and Rs 11,392 crore, respectively, in March 2024. In fourth place, the state of Tamil Nadu collected Rs 11,017 crore.
Ankur Gupta, who leads indirect tax at SW India, said that the contributions from states beyond the traditionally dominant ones such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is a positive sign, and attributed it to the success of national initiatives.
"This indicates the broader spread of economic activities across the country, driven by initiatives like 'Make in India' and the Production-linked incentive scheme," he said.