According to a press release issued by the Union Ministry of Finance, it collected a record Goods and Service Taxes (GST) worth Rs 1.60 trillion in March 2023, the second-highest amount after the roll-out of the tax regime in 2017. Earlier, the government’s highest-ever GST collection was in April 2022.
According to the ministry, it collected Rs 1.60 trillion-worth gross GST in March 2023, of which Rs 295.46bn is Central GST (CGST), Rs 373.14bn is State GST (SGST), Rs 829.07bn is Integrated GST (IGST) (including Rs 425.03bn collected on import of goods), and Rs 103.55bn-worth of cess (including Rs 9.60bn collected on import of goods).
The ministry claimed that it collected the highest-ever IGST in March 2023 since the roll-out of the GST regime. The Union government has made a normal payment of Rs 334.08bn to CGST and Rs 281.87bn to SGST from the IGST collected in March. After the IGST settlement, the total income for the Union and the States in March 2023 is Rs 629.54bn for CGST and Rs 655.01bn for SGST.
The government claimed that its GST income for March 2023 is 13% more than in March 2022. In comparison to the same month last year, the income from imports of commodities was 8% higher and the income from domestic transactions, which includes the purchase of services, was 14% higher during March 2023.
Maharashtra has collected the highest amount of GST among the States and Union territories (UTs). While Maharashtra collected GST worth Rs 206.05bn in March 2022, it experienced an 11.77% growth in GST collection in March 2023, when it collected Rs 226.95bn-worth taxes. Mizoram achieved the highest growth in GST collection (91.16%) in March 2023 vis-Ã -vis the same month in 2022, however, it collected only Rs 700m worth of GST in March 2023.
The finance ministry also claimed that the highest-ever number of GST returns were filed in March 2023. In comparison to March 2022, 93.2% of summaries of bills (in GSTR-1) and 91.4% of returns (in GSTR-3B) for February were submitted through March 2023.
The financial year (FY) 2022-23 saw a 22% increase in total sales over the previous year. Compared to the first, second, and third quarters’ average monthly collections of Rs 1.51 trillion, Rs 1.46 trillion, and Rs 1.49 trillion respectively, the average monthly total GST collection for the final quarter of the FY 2022–23 was Rs 1.55 trillion.