Goods & Services Tax (GST) collections during the month of May 2024 came in at Rs 1.73 lakh crore, recording a growth of 10 per cent on-year, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Finance on Saturday. For the previous month (April), GST collection had breached the Rs 2 lakh crore milestone. The gross GST collection during April had hit a record of Rs 2.10 lakh crore, up 12.4 per cent on-year.
The Ministry of Finance further added that the growth was driven by a strong increase in domestic transactions (up 15.3 per cent) and slowing of imports (down 4.3 per cent). After accounting for refunds, the net GST revenue for May 2024 stood at Rs 1.44 lakh crore, reflecting a growth of 6.9 per cent as compared to the same period last year.
The Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) collection stood at Rs 32,409 crore and the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) came in at Rs 40,265 crore. Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST), meanwhile, was recorded at Rs 87,781 crore, including Rs 39,879 crore collected on imported goods.
Per the data released, the gross GST collections in the FY 2024-25 till May 2024 stood at Rs 3.83 lakh crore, up 11.3 per cent on-year. The growth, it added, was driven by a strong increase in domestic transactions (up 14.2 per cent) and marginal increase in imports (up 1.4 per cent). The net GST revenue during FY 2024-25 till May 2024 came in at Rs 3.36 lakh crore, recording a growth of 11.6 per cent compared to the same period last year.
For FY25 so far, the Finance Ministry collected CGST of Rs 76,255 crore and SGST of Rs 93,804 crore. Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) for the financial year so far came in at Rs 1,87,404 crore, including Rs 77,706 crore collected on imported goods.
Reacting on the same, Saurabh Agarwal, Tax Partner, EY, said, “A decline from last month’s collections could be due to year-end tax payments in May and potentially stagnant auto sales. The combination of summer heatwaves and lower auto sales might lead to flat or lower GST collections in June 2024 compared to April’s peak.”
Gunjan Prabhakaran, Partner & Leader – Indirect Tax, BDO India, said, “The 10 per cent increase on a year-on-year basis in GST collections is largely driven by the significant increase in collections in North Indian states, like UP, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, etc.”
Shravan Shetty, Managing Director, Primus Partners, said, “The increase in collection continues the trend seen in April. This increase in tax revenue together with the unexpectedly high dividend received from RBI provides a great buffer for the new government which can target large capex in its first 100 days while not diverting from its fiscal target.”
Inter-Governmental Settlement
In the month of May, the central government settled Rs 38,519 crore to CGST and Rs 32,733 crore to SGST from the net IGST collected of Rs 67,204 crore. This, per the data, translates to a total revenue of Rs 70,928 crore for CGST and Rs 72,999 crore for SGST in May 2024, after regular settlement.
Similarly, in the FY25 till May 2024, the government settled Rs 88,827 crore to CGST and Rs 74,333 crore to SGST from the net IGST collected of Rs 154,671 crore. This translates to a total revenue of Rs 1,65,081 crore for CGST and Rs 1,68,137 crore for SGST in FY25 till May 2024 after regular settlement.