The Government’s yearly gross Good and Services Tax (GST) revenue for March 2024 witnessed the second highest collection ever at Rs 20.18 lakh crore, with a 11.7 per cent year-on-year growth as strong consistent performance in FY 2023-24 paved the way for the milestone of total gross GST collection exceeding Rs 20 lakh crore, the Finance Ministry said on Monday. This surge was driven by a significant rise in GST collection from domestic transactions at 17.6 per cent.
The GST revenue net of refunds for March 2024 is Rs 1.65 lakh crore which is growth of 18.4 per cent over same period last year. The average monthly collection for this fiscal year stands at Rs 1.68 lakh crore, surpassing the previous year’s average of Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
With continued double-digit growth, the CGST collections have exceeded the FY2024 revised estimate, albeit — Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist, ICRA – with a modest shortfall in the GST compensation cess inflows, which are now being used to repay the loans undertaken during the covid period. “With the CGST collections surpassing the FY2024 RE, the implicit growth needed to meet the interim budget estimate for FY2025 has come down to single-digits, which appears likely to be exceeded,” says Nayar.
The GST revenue net of refunds as of March 2024 for the current fiscal year is Rs 18.01 lakh crore which is a growth of 13.4 per cent over same period last year. Recording positive performance across components, the Central goods and services tax (CGST): stands at Rs 34,532 crore and state GST at Rs 43,746 crore. The integrated GST (IGST) stands at Rs 87,947 crore, including Rs 40,322 crore collected on imported goods, cess of Rs 12,259 crore (including Rs 996 crore collected on imported goods). Similar positive trends are observed in the entire FY 2023-24 collections.
The CGST stands at Rs 3,75,710 crore and SGST at Rs 4,71,195 crore. The IGST collection is Rs 10,26,790 crore, including Rs 4,83,086 crore collected on imported goods and cess of Rs 1,44,554 crore, including Rs 11,915 crore collected on imported goods.
Shravan Shetty, Managing Director at Primus Partners finds the growth in line with that estimated in the Budget for the coming year and feels maintaining this growth in the coming months will help the government meet its fiscal target.
Such fiscal prudence combined with record reserves, notes Shetty, will “provide stability to the rupee and increase India’s attractiveness as a stable, high-growth economy in a sea of uncertainty seen across both developing and developed countries”.
As for inter-governmental settlement, in the month of March, 2024, the Central Government settled Rs 43,264 crore to CGST and Rs 37,704 crore to SGST from the IGST collected.
This translates to a total revenue of Rs 77,796 crore for CGST and Rs 81,450 crore for SGST for March, 2024 after regular settlement. For the FY 2023-24, the central government settled Rs 4,87,039 crore to CGST and Rs 4,12,028 crore to SGST from the IGST collected.
