GST collections at Rs 92,150 crore in September

NEW DELHI: The government has collected Rs 92,150 crore as Goods and Services Tax (GST) in September from 42.91 lakh business, the finance ministry said on Tuesday. Of this, Rs 14,042 crore is on account of central GST, while state GST is to the tune of Rs 21,172 crore. Integrated GST collections stood at Rs 48,948 crore, of which Rs 23,951 crore was on account of imports. The GST registration response has been very encouraging, finance minister Arun Jaitley said, adding that the number of assesees has crossed 1 crore.

This includes about 72 lakh who have migrated from old tax system to GST and 28 lakh new assesses. “If in the first three month itself the number of registrants is up 30-35%, that in itself is a positive indication,” Jaitely said. He said there is still a transition phase for goods manufactured under earlier regime so the pattern has not yet emerged and will take some more time but tax collections are Rs 93,000-94,000 crore monthly after including IGST About 14 lakh assesses are yet to file tax under the composition scheme.

“The total revenue of GST paid under different heads (up to October 23, 2017) for the month of September 2017 is Rs 92,150 crore,” finance ministry said in a statement. Collection under compensation cess stood at Rs 7,988 crore, of which Rs 722 crore is Compensation Cess from imports in September.

Till Monday, 42.91lakh business entities had filed initial GSTR-3B returns for September. As per the data available, GST collections for July were over Rs 95,000 crore, while for August it was over Rs 91,000 crore. September was the third month of GST roll out. GST which amalgamates over a dozen taxes, including excise duty and service Tax, was rolled out from July 1.

FINE WAIVED
The government on Tuesday waived penalty on delayed filing of initial GST returns for August and September. “To facilitate taxpayers, late fee on filing of GSTR-3B for August and September has been waived,” Jaitley tweeted. He said the late fee which has been already charged to businesses will be credited back to taxpayers' accounts. The government had earlier waived late fee for delayed filing of the maiden returns for the month of July under the GST regime.

Businesses have been demanding that the government waives penalty for delayed filing of 3B returns. As per the data, 55.87 lakh GSTR-3B returns were filed for July, 51.37 lakh for August and over 42 lakh for September. Preliminary returns GSTR-3B for a month is filed on the 20th day of the next month after paying due taxes.