Gross goods and services tax (GST) collection grew 9.9% to Rs 1.96 lakh crore in March (February transactions), the second-highest mop-up ever, reflecting an uptick in goods shipments.
According to the government data, GST revenues from domestic transactions rose 8.8% to Rs 1.49 lakh crore, while revenue from imported goods was up 13.56% to Rs 46,919 crore.
The gross collection includes Central GST receipts of Rs 38,145 crore, state GST of Rs 49,891 crore and Integrated GST (IGST) of Rs 95,853 crore. Cess collection stood at Rs 12,253 crore in March.
Due to jump in refunds, the net GST revenue rose 7.3% to over Rs 1.76 lakh crore in March 2025 compared with the year ago month.
Total tax refunds grew 41% to Rs 19,615 crore in March.
GST collection had hit a record high of Rs 2.1 lakh crore in April 2024.
“Single-digit growth in GST revenue for the month would be a bit of concern for the government, though partly it seems to be because of higher refunds compared to last year. One can expect more rigour in GST audits and scrutiny to plug the leakages. The slowdown in consumption is an area which also needs to be addressed,” said Pratik Jain, Partner, PwC India.
Gross GST revenues rose 9.4% to Rs 22.09 lakh crore in FY25, while net revenues rose 8.6% to Rs 19.56 lakh crore during the year.
Deloitte India Partner MS Mani said it’s very encouraging to see that this not an isolated instance as GST collections have shown a steady increase every month, reflected by the 9.4% increase in annual gross GST collections.
“The increased refunds on both GST and Customs sides, which are very positive for businesses, have resulted in a lower growth rate of 8.6% in terms of the net collections on an annual basis,“ Mani said.
While the annual domestic GST collections show an upward trajectory exceeding 10% on a net basis, the corresponding increase in Customs is only 3.5%. This could reflect the success of several import substitution measures, focusing on Atma Nirbhar Bharat , success of some of the PLI schemes, Mani said.
There continues to be a wide variation in the growth rates of GST collections across key manufacturing and consuming states.
While states like Maharashtra, Haryana, UP, Rajasthan have shown a growth exceeding 10%, other states like Gujarat, Karnataka, Telengana, AP, Tamil Nadu have been in the range of -1% to 7% , which is very unusual for March.
There is a need to understand the reasons for the same by evaluating the sectoral growth and compliance rates in these states, Mani added.