India’s Gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections hit their third-highest monthly level in July to cross ₹1.82 lakh crore, with revenue growth recovering to 10.3% from a three-year low of 7.6% in June.
Gross revenue from domestic transactions grew 8.9% in July, easing from 9.4% recorded in June, but growth in taxes collected on imports bounced 14.2% from just 2.4% a month earlier. Sequentially, gross GST collections were 4.75% more than June’s kitty of ₹1,73,813 crore. After effecting refunds to taxpayers, net GST collections were up 14.4% in July at ₹1,65,793 crore, with net import revenue up 17.3% and domestic transactions clocking a 13.5% rise. July’s net GST revenues were 7.75% over June’s figure of just under ₹1.54 lakh crore. Net domestic revenues were 8.5% higher in June, while net receipts from imports had contracted 1.5% from June 2023 levels.
Tax experts noted that a slowdown in refunds might be responsible for the sharper uptick in net tax collections vis-à-vis gross revenue. In June, refunds had grown 19.3% year-on-year, with both domestic and export-related refunds rising over 19%.
By contrast, domestic refunds had slipped 34.1% in July, while export-related GST funds rose 1.4%. Total refunds in July were 19.4% lower than a year earlier at ₹16,283 crore, which also marked an 18.4% drop from June’s refunds of nearly ₹20,000 crore. July’s revenue numbers are provisional and the actuals number may slightly vary on finalisation, an official statement said.
Gross monthly GST receipts had hit a record high of over ₹2.1 lakh crore this April, while the second highest collections of ₹1.87 lakh crore were attained in the same month of 2023, with the revenue spike bolstered by financial year-end compliances in both instances.
The Finance Ministry, which generally shared monthly GST revenue numbers through a press release on the first of every subsequent month since the launch of the indirect tax regime in July 2017, had not issued such a statement for June. June’s GST collection figures were subsequently released on the indirect tax portal this Sunday.
While total revenues from domestic transactions were 8.9% higher, as many as five States clocked a contraction, including Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, where tax receipts were down 7% each. Revenue growth was milder than the national average in nine States, including Telangana (up 2%), Punjab and West Bengal (3%), Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim (4%), as well as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Bihar, that saw a growth of just 5% each.
Gross GST revenues in the first four months of 2024-25 have risen 10.2% to ₹7.39 lakh crore, with domestic revenues up 11.8% and imports yielding 5% more in taxes. Net collections’ growth is slightly higher at 11%, with a kitty of ₹6.56 lakh crore. Within this, import revenues were up 0.2%, while domestic transactions delivered a 14% growth.
“There appears to be a wide divergence in the growth of collections compared with the same month last year across States even among the large manufacturing and consuming States,“ said MS Mani, partner at Deloitte India, noting the need to assess these variations based on sectoral data for these States. Mr. Mani also said there “appears to be a slowdown on refunds”.
