GST collection for August 2017 slips to Rs 90,669 crore; revenue expected to rise on account of belated tax returns

The tax revenue collected under Goods and Services Tax (GST ) for the month of August is to the tune of Rs 90,669 crore. This is the GST paid under different heads for last month collected up to September 25, according to a statement by Ministry of Finance.

As per Ministry figures, the total CGST revenue for August 2017 stands at Rs 14,402 crore, whereas SGST revenue is Rs. 21,067 crore. The tax revenue collected under IGST came to a total of Rs 47,377 crore, out of which IGST from imports during August 2017 was Rs 23,180 crore. The Compensation Cess collected against demerit and luxury commodities under GST for August is Rs 7,823 crore, out of which Rs 547 crore is Compensation Cess from imports last month.

The above figures obviously do not include the GST to be paid by 10.24 lakh assessees who have opted for the composition scheme. Additionally, there are still a number of assessees who have not filed their return either for July or August, 2017. The total tax revenue collected under GST for the month of August, as well as July, is likely to increase once the late tax retrun are filed. Any change in the tax collection figures will be publicised in due time, the Finance Ministry stated.

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Taxpayers were supposed to pay their GST as well as file GSTR 3B return for the month of August 2017 by September 20. The total number of tax payers who were required to file monthly returns for August 2017 is 68.20 lakhs. Out of this many taxpayers, 37.63 lakh filed their GSTR 3B returns by the end of Septemeber 25.

Notably only a quarter of the total number of taxpayers had filed their GST returns for August on the GST Network portal by the end of September 19. Finance Ministry later had to extend the deadline to file GST returns for August and July after the GSTN portal crashed due to heavy traffic. GSTN portal, the IT backbone of the indirect tax regime can process 1 lakh return appliactions every hour, limiting its daily capacity to 24 lakh applications.

GST was introduced by Narendra Modi government July 1 earlier this year. As per Ministry reports, the total revenue collected on account of GST paid under different heads for the month of July, 2017 upto August 29 stood at Rs 92,283 crore.

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Out of this total GST collection of Rs 92,283 crore, the total CGST revenue was Rs 14,894 crore, SGST revenue was Rs 22,722 crore. The IGST revenue recorded for the first month of GST was Rs 47,469 crore, out of which IGST from imports was Rs 20,964 crore. Meanwhile, Compensation Cess during the maiden GST collection was Rs 7,198 crore, out of which Rs 599 crore was Compensation Cess from imports. Comparing the figures for July and August, there is a marginal decline in the GST collection for the two months.

Many tax assessees, however, had been filing the returns for July 2017 after the stipulated deadline. Taking into account the delayed payments, the total tax collected as GST under different heads for July 2017 was Rs 94,063 crore.

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