GST Collections For July At Rs 1.82 Tn, Up 10.3% YoY

The central and state governments collected Rs 1.82 trillion in goods and services tax (GST) in July 2024, a 10.3 per cent year-on-year increase, according to finance ministry data. This marks an improvement from the Rs 1.74 trillion collected in June 2024. While falling short of the record Rs 2.1 trillion in April, experts believe the collections align with robust GST revenue trends and predict further increases as the festive season approaches.

Tax experts noted that a A 10 per cent-plus growth in collections for this year vis-a-vis the last year aligns well with expectations and depicts signs of stability and maturity of GST implementation in India. With festivities coming up in the next few months, the collections should witness a further increase.

Despite a 19.4 per cent decrease in refunds compared to the same month last year, net GST collections rose by 14.4 per cent for July. Producer states Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu were the largest collectors of GST by value.

However, there was significant variation in collection growth among states, with Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka showing 11-13 per cent growth, while Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh ranged from -7 per cent to 5 per cent. M.S. Mani, partner at Deloitte India, suggested that this divergence should be evaluated based on sectoral data for these states.

The highest growth in collections came from Nagaland, Manipur, Andaman and Nicobar, and Ladakh, indicating increased economic activity and consumption in these regions. Saurabh Agarwal, tax partner at EY, highlighted this trend and also mentioned that a potential stagnation or decline in collections could occur in August due to the monsoon season impacting economic momentum.

In the April-July 2024 period, gross GST collections totaled Rs 7.38 trillion, up 10.2 per cent from Rs 6.70 trillion in the same period the previous year.