Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in October reached over Rs 1.87 lakh crore, the second-highest amount ever, with a 9 per cent year-over-year increase thanks to strong domestic transactions. While import tax revenues increased by roughly 4 per cent to Rs 45,096 crore, the GST from domestic transactions increased by 10.6 per cent to Rs 1.42 lakh crore.
The collections increased from Rs 1.72 lakh crore, up 8.2 per cent from September and 8.9 per cent year over year.
The data indicates that October had the second-best GST mop-up. Over Rs 2.10 lakh crore was collected in April, the highest amount ever.
October’s net GST revenue
October's net GST revenue was Rs 1.68 lakh crore, 7.9 per cent more than the previous year, due to refunds of Rs 19,306 crore, up 18.2 per cent.
The net GST mop-up and net central GST collections increased by 9 per cent and 9.9 per cent, respectively, from April to October. However, the gross collections increased 9.4 per cent from April to October, which is less than the 11.4 per cent growth that was observed during the same period in FY24.
FY25 budget projection for GST collection
The poor collections thus far suggest that the mop-up for the entire fiscal year might be less than what the budget has projected.
According to the budget, Central GST (CGST) collections will increase by 11 per cent over the course of the year. The remaining months of FY25 collections will need to increase by 11.4 per cent annually to reach the full year's CGST projection of Rs 9.11 lakh crore.
Domestic transaction collections increased 10.6 per cent year over year in October, but import collections increased just 3.9 per cent. The percentages for April through October were 10.5 per cent and 6.3 per cent, respectively.
