March GST Collection Slips Below Rs 1 Trillion

In March, for the first time in four months, government's goods and service tax (GST) collection fell below the Rs 1 trillion- mark.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Finance Ministry informed that the gross GST revenue collected for March was Rs 97,597 crore of which CGST is Rs 19,183 crore, SGST Rs 25,601 crore, IGST Rs 44,508 crore (including Rs 18,056 crore collected on imports) and cess is Rs 8,306 crore (including Rs 841 crore collected on imports).

Total number of GSTR-3B Returns filed for the month of February up to 31 March is 76.5 lakh.

The ministry also said that the centre has settled Rs 19,718 crore to CGST and Rs 14,915 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. Additionally, centre has also apportioned unsettled balance IGST of Rs 6,000 crores on ad-hoc basis in the ratio of 50:50 between centre and States/UTs.

The total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after regular settlement in the month of March 2020 is Rs 41,901 crore for CGST and Rs 43,516 crore for the SGST, the statement said.

GST revenues from domestic transactions during the month has shown a negative growth of 4 percent compared to March 2019. Total GST revenue from imports decreased by 8 percent in March 2020 when compared to a year ago.

For the full financial year, 2019-20, GST for domestic transactions has shown a growth rate of 8 percent from the previous year. However, GST from import on goods fell down by 8 percent as compared to 2018-19. Overall, gross GST revenues grew at 4 percent over the previous year.