Keypoints:
- The Goods and Service Tax collection for December 2020 touched a record high of Rs 1.15 lakh crore.
- This is the highest ever collections since the implementation of the countrywide tax in July 2017, the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Friday, January 1.
The collections are 12% higher when compared to December 2019 and it is underlying the trend of economic recovery amid the COVID pandemic and in line with the recent trend of recovery in the GST revenues.
Since the introduction of the taxation regime in July 2017, Goods and Service Tax (GST) soared an all time high of over 1.15 lakh crore. In the current financial year, the collection of December is the highest and is the third consecutive month to cross the 1 lakh crore mark. The collections were at Rs 1.05 lakh crore and Rs 1.04 lakh crore in the month of October and November.
The finance ministry has said that the continued rise in the GST mop up is due to the combined effect of rapid economic recovery post-pandemic and the drive against GST evaders.
“This is the highest growth in monthly revenues since the last 21 months,” the finance ministry said in a statement Friday.“This has been due to the combined effect of the rapid economic recovery post pandemic and the nation-wide drive against GST evaders and fake bills along with many systemic changes introduced recently, which have led to improved compliance,” the ministry added.
“The GST collections crossing 1.15 lakh crore for the first time ever despite that we are not complete out of the pandemic is simply fantastic and indicates a remarkable recovery in the economy,” said Abhishek Jain, tax partner at EY.
The government settles Rs 23,276 crore to CGST and Rs 17,681 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue earned by the Central Government and the State Governments after regular settlement in the month of December is Rs 44,641 crore for CGST and Rs 45,485 crore for the SGST.
GST collections, which directly reflects the state of economic activity, had dropped to a record low of Rs 32,172 crore in April, after the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.
