GST mop-up rises 15% in Nov, crosses Rs 1.6 lakh cr mark for 6th time in FY24

GST collections surged by 15 percent to reach Rs 1.67 lakh crore in November, the Finance Ministry announced today. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) mop-up was over Rs 1.45 lakh crore in November 2022. The November 2023 collections are, however, lower than Rs 1.72 lakh crore mopped up in October—the second-highest collection ever since the GST rollout.

Commenting on the November GST figures, Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist, Head Research and Outreach, ICRA, said, "The healthy growth in GST collections is enthusing, although it may partly reflect the later onset of the festive season this year. We expect CGST collections to modestly exceed the budget estimates."

KPMG's Partner and National Head, Indirect Tax, Abhishek Jain, said that the collections "are a big cheer for the Indian economy and, to an extent, signify the resilience of the economy to various global challenges." He added that festive sales, settlement of disputes against notices issued, etc. could be some underlying reasons for higher collections in November.

Incidentally, the revenues for the month of November are the highest for any month year-on-year during 2023–24, up to November 2023.

Pratik Jain, Partner, PwC India, expects the upward trend in GST collections to continue for the remainder of this fiscal as well.

The total November GST revenue includes CGST of Rs 30,420 crore, SGST of Rs 38,226 crore, and IGST of Rs 87,009 crore (including Rs 39,198 crore from the import of goods), and cess amounted to Rs 12,274 crore (including Rs 1,036 crore from the import of goods).

It is the sixth time that the gross GST collection has crossed the Rs 1.60 lakh crore mark in FY 2023–24. The gross GST collection for the FY 2023–24 ending November 2023 [Rs 13,32,440 crore, averaging Rs 1.66 lakh per month] is 11.9% higher than the gross GST collection for the FY 2022–23 ending November 2022 [Rs 11,90,920 crore, averaging Rs 1.49 lakh crore per month].

According to Saurabh Agarwal, Tax Partner, EY, the numbers are "an indicator of a stable Indian economy, as we see a 20% increase in domestic transactions compared to the same month last year."

Meanwhile, the Centre said that it has allocated Rs 37,878 crore to CGST and Rs 31,557 crore to SGST from IGST. "After the regular settlement, the total revenue for the Centre and the States in November 2023 is Rs 68,297 crore for CGST and Rs 69,783 crore for SGST," the finance ministry said in a press release.

According to the Finance Ministry, in November, the revenues from domestic transactions (including the import of services) were 20% higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.