GST revenue dips 12.4 per cent to Rs 83,346 crore in October

A sum of Rs 83,346 crore has come in as the total revenue collection under GST for the month of October, which has been received during November so far, according to a finance ministry statement released on Monday. The revenue collected under GST during October for the month of September was Rs 95,131 crore, while the corresponding figure for August was of Rs 93,141 crore.

The finance ministry, headed by Arun Jaitley, said the reason for the donward trend in tax revenue under GST can be attributed to a number of factors. One of the reasons is that in the first three months there was an additional flow of IGST due to the first time requirement of paying IGST on transfer of goods from one state to another state even within the same company. As and when the final transaction of these goods takes place, the credit for IGST is being utilized for payment of SGST and CGST and therefore, the inflow of new taxes is low, it explained.

Another reason for the decline in revenue is that since the overall incidence of taxes on most of the commodities has come down under GST, it would naturally have some implication on the revenues of the Government as well. Besides, the tax administration of GST is now based on selfdeclared tax returns, in which the assessee decides on his own how much tax liability he has and claims input tax credit as per his own calculations.

Since implementation of some of the main features of GST such as, matching of returns, e-way bill as well as reverse charge mechanism have been postponed the tax compliance may not be up to the mark, the finance ministry added. As many as 95.9 lakh taxpayers have been registered under GST so far, of which 15.1 lakh are composition dealers who are required to file returns every quarter.

Over 50.1 lakh returns have been filed for the month of October till 26th November 2017. The finance ministry also said that the Centre was fully protecting the revenues of the states by taking the base year revenue as 2015-16 and providing for a projected revenue growth rate of 14%.

Funds were accordingly being transferred to them. A senior official told Mail Today that the government has envisioned GST to be revenue neutral but there are some teething problems at it is the most comprehensive tax reform in post-independence India. However, everything is falling into place as we go ahead, he added. The states have collected a total of Rs. 87,238 crore by way of SGST in the months of August, September, October and November 2017 (till 27th November).

Further on all interstate trade, a net amount is transferred from IGST account to the SGST account whenever IGST collected is used for payment of SGST. By way of settlement an amount of Rs. 31,821 crores has been released by the Centre to the states for the months of August, September and October 2017.

A compensation amount of Rs. 10,806 crores for revenue shortfall has also been released to all the states for the months of July and August 2017 and a compensation of Rs. 13,695 crores for the months of September and October 2017 is now being released. The total CGST income in August, September, October and November (till 27th November) has been Rs.58,556 crores. In addition, Rs.16,233 crores has been transferred from IGST account to CGST account on account of inter-state supply of goods and services.