GST’s revenues during December 2020 have been the highest since the introduction of the new tax regime.
Gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collected in December 2020 was Rs 1,15,174 million, of which CGST was Rs 21,365 million, SGST was Rs 27,804 million, IGST was Rs 57,426 crore (including Rs 27,050 crore collected on import of goods) and the tax was ₹ 8,579 crore (including ₹ 971 crore collected on imports of goods). The total number of GSTR-3B returns filed from November to December 31, 2020 was 87 lakhs.
The government placed ₹ 23,276 crore to CGST and ₹ 17,681 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue earned by the Union government and state governments after regular liquidation in the month of December 2020 was Rs 44,641 crore for CGST and Rs 45,485 crore for SGST.
In line with the recent recovery trend in GST revenues, December 2020 revenues were 12% higher than GST revenues in the same month last year. During the month, income from imports of goods was 27 percent higher and income from internal transactions (including import of services) was 8 percent higher than income from these sources during the same month last year. .
GST’s revenue during December 2020 has been the highest since the introduction of GST and it is the first time it crossed Rs 1.15 lakh crore. The highest GST collection to date was Rs 1,13,866 crore in April 2019. April revenues normally tend to be high as they pertain to March returns, which marks the end of the financial year. December 2020 revenue is significantly higher than last month’s revenue of Rs 1,04,963 crore. This is the highest growth in monthly income since the last 21 months. This has been due to the combined effect of the rapid post-pandemic economic recovery and the national campaign against GST evaders and false invoices along with many recently introduced systemic changes, which have led to better compliance.
So far, GST’s revenue has crossed ₹ 1.1 crore three times since the introduction of GST. This is the third month in a row in the current financial year after the economy has shown signs of recovery after the pandemic that GST revenue has been more than Rs 1 lakh crore. GST’s average revenue growth during the last quarter was 7.3% compared to -8.2% during the second quarter and -41.0% during the first quarter of the financial year.
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