GST collection up 12% YoY to ₹1.5 lakh cr in February

The gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collected in February 2023 stood at ₹1,49,577 crore as compared to ₹1.55 lakh crore in January 2022, the Ministry of Finance said today. The GST revenue for February 2023 is 12% higher than the GST collection in the same month last year, which was ₹1,33,026 crore.

“February being a 28-day month witnesses a relatively lower collection of revenue,” says the ministry. The government’s gross GST revenue stood at ₹1.5 lakh crore in December 2022 as well.

With this, the monthly GST revenue has been more than ₹1.4 lakh crore for 12 straight months in a row.

According to the ministry, February saw the highest cess collection of ₹11,931 crore since the implementation of GST. The revenues from the import of goods rose 6% and the revenues from the domestic transaction, including the import of services, grew 15% on a month-on-month basis.

Of the entire GST collection, CGST was ₹27,662 crore, SGST was ₹34,915 crore, IGST was ₹75,069 crore, including ₹35,689 crore collected on import of goods, and cess stood at ₹11,931 crore, including ₹792 crore collected on import of goods.

The government also settled ₹34,770 crore to CGST and ₹29,054 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement.

“The total revenue of Centre and the states after regular settlements in February 2023 is ₹62,432 crore for CGST and ₹63,969 crore for the SGST,” the ministry added.

In addition, the Centre also released the balance GST compensation of ₹16,982 crore for June 2022 and ₹16,524 crore to states/UTs.

The chart below shows trends in monthly gross GST revenues during the current year. The table shows the state-wise figures of GST collected in each State during the month of February 2023 as compared to February 2022.

The total indirect tax collections are estimated to be ₹13.30 lakh crore in FY23. Of this, the government has projected to raise ₹7.8 lakh crore from GST alone. Of the total GST collection, 85% is expected to come from central GST (₹6,60,000 crore) and 15% (₹1,20,000 crore) from GST compensation cess.

The finance ministry in its January economic review has said despite high inflation, high-frequency indicators in December 2022 and January 2023 indicate the economy was on track to achieve 7% GDP growth in 2022-23. Due to the Centre's focus on "macroeconomic stability" in the last several years, the Indian economy faces the year ahead with "confidence", while being mindful of the risks, says the monthly economic review of the ministry.

As per the ministry, sustained growth in GST collections, electronic toll collections and the volume of E-way bills generated, and the indices of manufacturing activity such as the PMI-manufacturing, the Index of Industrial Production and the Index of Core Industries (ICI) show the manufacturing activity continues to grow steadily.