Rs 83,300 cr collected, 50 lakh new returns filed
AMN /New Delhi
Total collection under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for the month of November so far has been Rs 83,346 crore and over 95.9 lakh taxpayers have been registered under the new regime, the Finance Ministry said on Monday. It is the lowest collection since the indirect tax system was implemented on July 1.
The finance ministry on Monday attributed the dip in revenue collection to various factors including decline in “overall incidence of taxes on most commodities”.
Out of this, 15.1 lakh are composition dealers which are required to file returns every quarter, the Ministry said.
In a series of tweets, the Finance Ministry said 50.1 lakh returns have been filed for the month of October till November 26.
According to government data, tweeted by the Ministry, States have collected Rs. 87,238 crores by way of SGST in August, September, October and November 2017, while the total CGST income for the same period stood at Rs 58,556 crore.
The major reason for the gap in income of CGST and SGST has been that more CGST liability has been discharged using transition credit rather than by way of cash, the government said.
“Thus, taxpayers are using the balance credit available with them in the previous tax regime, which is the reason why there is an additional revenue gap in the Centre’s revenue,” the Finance Ministry tweeted.
Further on all Inter-State trade, a net amount was transferred from IGST account to the SGST account whenever IGST collected is used for payment of SGST, it added.
The government also said that states are being compensated for their revenue shortfall. “By way of settlement an amount of Rs. 31,821 crore has been released to the States for the months of August, September & October 2017. Rs. 13,882 crore are being released by way of settlement to all the States for the month of November 2017,” the Ministry tweet said.
As per the Goods and Services (Compensation to States) Act 2017, states’ revenues are fully protected against any shortfall in GST collections. A compensation amount of Rs 10,806 crore have been released to all the States for July and August 2017.