India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenues crossed ₹1,64,800 crore in December 2023, with year-on-year growth slowing to a three-month low of 10.3% from a 15.1% rise in the previous month.
December’s GST kitty, for transactions undertaken in November 2023, is about 1.8% lower than the nearly ₹1.68 lakh crore collected a month earlier, which marked the third highest monthly receipts from the tax that was launched in July 2017.
“The revenues from domestic transactions [including import of services] are 13% higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Goods imports
While the Ministry did not specify the growth trends in revenues from goods imports, back-of-the-envelope calculations by The Hindu indicate they grew at a milder pace of 3.65%.
The average monthly gross GST kitty in the first nine months of 2023-24 stands at ₹1.66 lakh crore, compared to ₹1.49 lakh crore a year earlier. “Notably, this marks the seventh month so far this year with collections exceeding ₹1.60 lakh crore,” the Ministry emphasised.
“During the April-December 2023 period, gross GST collection witnessed a robust 12% y-o-y growth, reaching ₹14.97 lakh crore, as against ₹13.40 lakh crore collected in the same period of the previous year,” it said. December’s gross GST revenue of ₹1,64,882 crore included central GST (CGST) revenues of ₹30,443 crore, State GST (SGST) collection of ₹37,935 crore and ₹84,255 crore of Integrated GST (IGST), which included ₹41,534 crore from import of goods. GST Compensation Cess collections stood at ₹12,249 crore, of which ₹1,079 crore was levied on goods imports.
Thirteen States recorded revenue growth of 13%, which was the national average growth for domestic revenues, or more.
Arunachal Pradesh (up 44%), followed by Haryana (22%), Goa and the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir (20% each), and Tamil Nadu (with 19% growth), led the pack.
Manipur recovered from a 21% decline in November’s GST kitty to record a 9% rise in December. However, Sikkim recorded a 13% contraction in revenues, while the trend was flat for Meghalaya. Apart from these three, a dozen other States recorded slower GST revenue growth than the national average, including Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, that saw just 1% growth, Gujarat (up 7%), Madhya Pradesh (11%), and Kerala and Uttar Pradesh (up 12% each).
“While the collection is slightly lower than those in the previous month, the consistent mark of above ₹1.6 lakh crore provides fiscal confidence amid various global headwinds. Festive cheer and continued settlement of 2017-18 and 2018-19 dues would have contributed to this continued growth as well,” said Abhishek Jain, partner and national head for indirect tax at KPMG.
“The government has settled ₹40,057 crore to CGST and ₹33,652 crore to SGST from the IGST revenues. The total revenue of Centre and the States in December 2023, after regular settlement is ₹70,501 crore for CGST and ₹71,587 crore for the SGST,” the Ministry noted.
