GST collection in May exceeds average monthly collections in FY18
01 Jun 2018
Gross revenue collection from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in May 2018 stood at Rs94,016 crore, which is much higher than the monthly average of GST collection in the last financial year (Rs89,885 crore).
Of the Rs94,016 crore gross GST collection, Rs15,866 crore came as CGST, Rs21,691 crore as SGST, Rs49,120 crore (including Rs24,447 crore collected on imports) as IGST and Rs7,339 crore (including Rs854 crore collected on imports) as cess.
The total number of GSTR 3B Returns filed for the month of April up to 31 May 2018 is 6.247 million.
The total revenue earned by the central and state governments in May after settlements stood at Rs28,797crore and Rs34,020crore, respectively.
Though current month’s revenue collection is less compared to last month’s revenue, the gross revenue collection in May (Rs94,016 crore) is much higher than the monthly average of GST collection in the last financial year (Rs89,885 crore).
The April revenue figure was higher because of year end effect, according to an official release.
On Tuesday, the centre also released Rs6,696 crore to states as GST compensation for the month of March 2018, which took total GST compensation released to the states for the FY 2017-18 (Jul 2017 to Marh 2018) to Rs47,844 crore.
The government also announced a special refund fortnight for exporters from 31 May 2018 to 14 June 2018 to address concerns raised by theexporting community.
Refunds of GST have been a concern for both the government and trade for the past several months. Till now, the government has sanctioned more than Rs30,000 crore as GST refund. This includes an amount of Rs16,000 crore of IGST and Rs14,000 crore of ITC. The figures of ITC include sanction by both the central and state governments.
The government said, contrary to the press reports that there has been a dip in refund sanction after the first refund fortnight in March 2018, the refund sanctioned during May 2018 is to the tune of Rs8,000 crore.
Refund claims to the tune of Rs14,000 crore (Rs7,000 crore on the IGST side and Rs7,000 crore on account of ITC) are pending with the government, as against the figure of Rs20,000 crore projected by FIEO in the press reports, an official release stated.
However, to reduce the pendencythe , government is starting a second “Special drive Refund Fortnight” from 31 May 2018 to 14 June 2018. This time the “Special Drive Refund Fortnight” would facilitate all types of refund claims in which Customs, Central and State GST officers will strive to clear all GST refund applications received on or before 30 April 2018, the release stated.