First time ever, GST revenue collection crosses Rs 1 lakh crore figure

The government today announced that the total gross GST revenue collected in the month of April 2018 stood at Rs 1,03,458 crore. It is the first time when a month's collection has crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark.  The finance ministry in a release has said that total GST revenue collection of Rs 1,03,458 crore included CGST, which is at Rs 18,652 crore, SGST, which is at Rs 25,704 crore, IGST, which is at  Rs 50,548 crore (including 21,246 crores collected on imports) and Cess, which  is at Rs 8554 crore (including Rs 702 crore collected on imports). It added, "The total revenue earned by Central

Government and the State Governments after settlement in the month of April 2018 is Rs 32,493 crore for CGST and Rs 40,257 crore for the SGST."

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The release also talks about the GSTR 3B Returns and says that out of a total of 87.12 lakh taxpayers, only 60.47 lakh filed GSTR-3B for the month of March up to April 30 and these returns amount to 69.5 per cent compliance. It adds, April 2018 was also the month for the filing of quarterly Return for composition dealers. Out of 19.31 lakh composition dealers, 11.47 lakh have filed their quarterly return (GSTR 4) which is 59.40% and have paid a total tax of Rs 579 crore, which is included in the above figure of Rs 1.03 lakh crore of total GST collection.

According to the Finance Ministry, the buoyancy in the tax revenue of GST reflects the upswing in the economy and better compliance. 

After the release, Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said, the healthy March 2018 collections are a reflection of combined reasons. The finance secretary said that better enforcement, compliance, implementation of e-way bill and assessment has helped in increasing revenues. 

The finance secretary also said that the impact of transition credit is also fading away and the government expects that monthly average of revenue collection in the financial year (FY) 2019 would be Re 1 lakh crore versus the monthly average of Rs 90,000 crore in FY 2018. He added the cash accounting system under GST will help the government to maintain a better data.