Feb GST slips sequentially to ₹1,33,026 cr, but up 18% Y-o-Y

Monthly Goods and Service Tax (GST) revenue slipped from the record highs witnessed last month to rake in ₹1,33,026 crore in February. The collection is down 5.64% sequentially from the record high collection of ₹1,40,986 crore in January, while it is up 18% from ₹1,13,143 crore collected in February 2021.

The finance ministry said that the GST collection for the month needs to be seen in the context of the partial lockdowns imposed during the month on account of the third wave of the pandemic and lesser number days in the month.

“The gross GST revenue collected in the month of February 2022 is ₹1,33,026 crore of which CGST is ₹24,435 crore, SGST is ₹30,779 crore, IGST is Rs67,471crore (including ₹33,837 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is ₹10,340 crore (including ₹638 crore collected on import of goods),” said the ministry of finance in a release.

“The revenues for the month of February 2022 are 18% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year and 26% higher than the GST revenues in February 2020. During the month, revenues from import of goods was 38% higher and the revenues from domestic transaction (including import of services) are 12% higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year,” the ministry said in the release.

Lower collection also pertains to the lesser number of days in the month of February, the finance ministry said.

“February, being a 28-day month, normally witnesses revenues lower than that in January. This high growth during February 2022 should also be seen in the context of partial lockdowns, weekend and night curfews and various restrictions that were put in place by various States due to the omicron wave, which peaked around 20th January,” the ministry release added.

Experts are also of the view that collections over ₹1,30,000 crore even in the face of the third wave of the pandemic points to the fact that the GST collections are getting stable and compliance measures are having an impact.

M S Mani, Partner, Deloitte India said, “GST collections exceeding ₹1.33 lakh crore, despite the challenging pandemic situation in January 2022 indicates that the collections are now on a stable trajectory and the FY22 targets would be exceeded.”

“Economy has revived with Covid restrictions which have been eased or removed. Further the level of compliance has increased among the assessee. The data analysis conducted by the authorities have also controlled evasion to a large extent. The GST audits for March 21 have also been completed on February 28. Balance tax payable due to errors and omissions has also lead to higher collections. The growth trajectory in collections should now be in this range only,” said Parag Mehta, Partner, NA Shah Associates.

Mani, however, points to a trend that despite the GST revenue growing and stabilizing, there is a significant divergence amongst the states with increases in the range of 2% to 23% amongst the large states.

“This is for the fifth time GST collection has crossed ₹1.30 lakh crore mark. Since implementation of GST, for the first time, GST cess collection crossed ₹10,000 crore mark, which signifies recovery of certain key sectors, especially, automobile sales,” the finance ministry said in the release.