Budget 2018: GST collections reverse trend; rise to Rs 86,703 cr in December

Halting two months of decline, the GST collections gathered momentum in December, rising to Rs 86,703 crore.

"Total revenue collections under GST for the month of December 2017 (received in December 2017/January up to January 24, 2018) has been Rs 86,703 crore till January 24, 2018," the finance ministry said in a statement.

Total collections under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in November had slipped for the second straight month to Rs 80,808 crore, from over Rs 83,000 crore in October. In September, it was over Rs 92,150 crore.

The collections had declined in November after the GST Council cut rates on more than 200 items.

According to PwC leader Pratik Jain, increase in revenue collection is on the expected lines and it means that gradually GST is stabilising and transition issues are waning.

This, coupled with a few anti-evasion measures being taken by the government now, is likely to result in further increase of revenues in January to March 2018 quarter, he said.

The rollout of e-way bill on transport of goods having value exceeding Rs 50,000 from one state to another on PAN India basis from February 1, 2018 will further curb tax evasion and revenue will rise in upcoming months, Vishal Raheja, DGM, Taxmann, said.

The ministry further said that 1 crore taxpayers have been registered under GST till January 24, of which 17.11 lakh are composition dealers who are required to file returns every quarter.

As many as 56.30 lakh GSTR 3B returns have been filed for December, it said.

For the composition dealers, in the July-September quarter, the last date of filing GSTR 4 Returns was December 24, it said. A total of 8.10 lakh returns were filed by them amounting to Rs 335.86 crore.

For the October-December quarter, the last date for filing GSTR 4 returns was January 18, and a total of 9.25 lakh returns were filed by composition dealers paying a sum of Rs 421.35 crore, it added.