GST growth comparisons can’t be 'apples and oranges' says CBIC; hits back at 'misleading' claims

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Wednesday said attempts to compare GST revenue figures using different tax bases are “thoroughly misleading and mischievous”, asserting that growth calculations must be made on a like-for-like basis.

The clarification comes after the GST Council discontinued the compensation cess on all items except tobacco and related products from September 22, 2025. The cess on tobacco and related products was subsequently removed from February 1, 2026. As a result, there has been no compensation cess collection since then, CBIC said in a post on X.

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CBIC said GST revenue figures released in the public domain since November 2025, the first tax period after GST rate rationalisation, have shown compensation cess separately in a table below the main revenue figures. The year-on-year growth rate was calculated using a tax base comprising central GST, state GST and integrated GST for the corresponding periods, it said.

A footnote was also provided as part of the disclosure, CBIC said.

“Growth rate is meaningful only when it is computed on a comparable basis,” the board said, adding that comparing tax bases that include different levies would be akin to “comparing apples and oranges”.

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CBIC said the purpose of a growth figure is to show how the underlying tax base has moved. Once a levy ceases to exist in law, retaining it in the tax base would measure something different and would neither be arithmetically correct nor logically meaningful, it said.

“Any attempt to cherry-pick figures from two different tax bases is thoroughly misleading and mischievous,” CBIC said, adding that fair analysis requires comparison of like-for-like datasets.