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India’s gross GST revenues grew 10.76% in August to hit a three-month low of ₹1,59,069 crore, with revenues from domestic transactions and services imports rising 14% and goods imports yielding 3% more taxes.
The revenue growth was just marginally lower than the 10.8% uptick in July, which was the slowest in two years. However, revenues were 3.65% below the ₹1.65 lakh crore collected in July.
The first five months of 2023-24 have still reported 11.3% higher average GST revenues of nearly ₹1.66 lakh crore, compared to the same period last year, thanks to the record ₹1.87 lakh crore collected in April.
August also marked the first time in three months that revenues from goods imports recorded an uptick. Central GST (CGST) collections in the month stood at ₹28,328 crore, State GST collections at ₹35,794 crore and Integrated GST or IGST at ₹83,251 crore, the Finance Ministry said.
Over half of the IGST collections or ₹43,550 crore was collected on import of goods, while Compensation Cess yielded ₹11,695 crore, including ₹1,016 crore on goods imports.
“The government has settled ₹37,581 crore to CGST and ₹31,408 crore to State GST from IGST. The total revenue of Centre and the States in the month of August, 2023 after regular settlement is ₹65,909 crore for CGST and ₹67,202 crore for the SGST,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The headline GST number is marginally lower than our forecast, dampened by imports. However, the overall collections so far this year remain robust,” said ICRA chief economist Aditi Nayar.
“All the key manufacturing and consuming States have shown an increase ranging from 10% to 23% indicating that the overall increase in domestic consumption is fairly widespread across States,” noted MS Mani, partner at Deloitte India.
Revenues in strife-torn Manipur recovered after a contraction in July to post 17% growth in August. Among the States, Tripura recorded the highest growth of 40%, followed by Arunachal Pradesh (39%), Nagaland (37%), and Goa (36%).
