At nearly ₹1.5 lakh crore, December GST revenues up from November lows

The third highest monthly collection so far and 15% higher than a year ago; Bihar reports the highest growth in revenues at 36%, and Goa, Odisha, Manipur among States that record a dip

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India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenues rose to nearly ₹1.5 lakh crore in December 2022, 15% higher than a year ago and 2.5% over November’s collections that had marked a three-month low.

This is the tenth month in a row that GST collections have crossed the ₹1.4 lakh crore mark, with revenues from import of goods rising 8% and revenues from domestic transactions (including import of services) up 18% from the revenues yielded by these sources during December 2021. 

The gross GST revenue collected during December 2022, which reflect transactions undertaken in November, is ₹1,49,507 crore, of which Central GST (CGST) is ₹26,711 crore, State GST (SGST) is ₹33,357 crore, Integrated GST (IGST) is ₹78,434 crore (including ₹40,263 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is ₹11,005 crore (including ₹850 crore collected on import of goods), the Finance Ministry said.

“The Government has settled ₹36,669 crore to the CGST and ₹31,094 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue of Centre and the States after regular settlements in the month of December 2022 is ₹63,380 crore for CGST and ₹64,451 crore for the SGST,” it added.

On a sequential basis, while there was a 2.5% rise in revenues from November to December 2022, the number of e-way bills generated went up 3.95% to 7.9 crore in December.

While revenues from domestic transactions rose 18% overall, a dozen States recorded higher growth in tax collections and 13 States reported slower growth rates. Goa, Odisha and Manipur reported a contraction in revenues of 22%, 6% and 5%, respectively, even as Chhatisgarh’s revenues were flat year-on-year. 

Bihar reported the highest growth in revenues at 36%, followed by Nagaland (30%), the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir (28%), Arunachal Pradesh (27%), with Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh seeing GST inflows rise by 26% each. Tamil Nadu’s revenues rose 25%, followed closely by Rajasthan and West Bengal (24%), Madhya Pradesh (22%) and Maharashtra (20%).

Among the Union Territories, Ladakh reported a sharp 68% spike in revenues, followed by Dadra Nagar Haveli (37%), Chandigarh (33%) and Puducherry (30%). However, Daman and Diu reported a whopping 86% drop in GST collections, with Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands also recording contractions of 36% and 19%, respectively.

Abhishek Jain, partner indirect tax, KPMG said the robust GST collections suggest that ₹1.5 lakh crore may be ‘the new normal’ for monthly revenues, as the December’s numbers came in after peak festive sales are over.