NEW DELHI: Goods and services tax (GST) collections rose 16.4% to Rs 2,01,050 crore in May, the fastest pace of expansion since Oct 2022, on the back of a jump in taxes on imports.Latest data estimated that during May (for transactions in April), GST collections from imports rose 25.2% to Rs 51,266 crore, while the mop-up from domestic sources, which is almost three-fourths of the overall kitty, was 13.7% higher at just under Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
Imports during April had shot up 19% to nearly $65 billion due to a spike in crude oil and fertiliser shipments, among other things. “A 16% growth in GST collections shows a renewed upward momentum after few months of growth in the range of 11% to 12%. If the growth continues in this range for next couple of months, it might provide the cushion for govt to look at rate rationalisation on which a lot of work has already been done,” said Pratik Jain, partner at consulting firm PwC.Last week, govt sources indicated that the finance ministry is working with the states to rationalise GST rates with a review of the slabs on the table. On a net basis, collections were 20.4% higher at Rs 1,73,841 crore as refunds were 4% lower at Rs 27,210 crore, despite domestic refunds soaring 53.7% to Rs 18,314 crore.There was, however, wide variation among the states. Arunachal Pradesh (53%), Nagaland (46%) and Delhi (38%) topped the growth charts, with Tamil Nadu (25%), Kerala (24%), Bihar (23%) and Karnataka (20%) in the middle. At the other end, were Andhra (2% dip), Uttarakhand (13% decline) and Mizoram (26% fall) which reported lower collections.“The average growth across the country does not appear to be uniformly reflected across states, possibly due to sectoral or seasonal factors, which require a deeper data based analysis, said M S Mani, partner for indirect taxes at Deloitte India.
