GST collections rise 11.5% to cross ₹1.57 lakh crore in May

India’s gross Goods & Services Tax (GST) collections grew 11.5% in May, crossing ₹1.57 lakh crore, with revenues from domestic transactions rising 11% and imports yielding 12% more taxes than a year ago.

India’s gross Goods & Services Tax (GST) collections grew 11.5% in May, crossing ₹1.57 lakh crore, with revenues from domestic transactions rising 11% and imports yielding 12% more taxes than a year ago.

This was the 14th successive month that GST revenues have been over ₹1.4 lakh crore and the fifth occasion that they had surpassed the ₹1.5 lakh crore mark. Sequentially, May’s revenues, for transactions undertaken in the first month of the new financial year, were the lowest in three months and 16% below the record ₹1.87 lakh crore collected in April.

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“The total revenue of Centre and the States in the month of May 2023 after the regular settlement is ₹63,780 crore for Central GST (CGST) and ₹65,597 crore for the State GST (SGST),” the Finance Ministry said in a statement. 

The government has settled ₹35,369 crore towards CGST and ₹29,769 crore to SGST from the Integrated GST (IGST) collections of the month which amounted to ₹81,363 crore. A little over 51% of the month’s IGST collections came from taxes on imports of goods.

The 12% growth in revenues from goods imports marks a turnaround from a three-month streak of slowing growth capped by a 4.5% contraction in April, and could indicate a recovery in discretionary domestic demand.

Revenues from goods imports were up 29% between April 2022 and January 2023, while taxes from domestic transactions and services imports were up 22%. However, February and March recorded just a 6% and 8% uptick in taxes on goods imports.