GST revenue collection at all-time high in January 2021, stands at Rs 1.19 lakh crore: Ministry of Finance

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Finance on Sunday (January 31, 2021) announced that the gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collected in January 2021 hit an all-time high and stood at Rs 1.19 lakh crore. It said that the GST revenues during January 2021 are the highest since the introduction of GST and has almost touched the Rs 1.2 lakh crore mark, exceeding December 2020’s record collection of Rs 1.15 lakh crore. 

The official statement said that the gross GST revenue collected in the month of January 2021 till 6 PM on January 31 was recorded at Rs 1,19,847 crore, of which, CGST is Rs 21,923 crore, SGST is Rs 29,014 crore, IGST is Rs 60,288 crore (including Rs 27,424 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is Rs 8,622 crore (including Rs 883 crore collected on import of goods). 

The Finance Ministry informed that the total number of GSTR-3B Returns filed for the month of December up to January 31 was recorded at 90 lakhs.

The government has settled Rs 24,531 crore to CGST and Rs 19,371 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. 

“The total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after regular settlement in the month of January 2021 is Rs 46,454 crore for CGST and Rs 48,385 crore for the SGST,” said the Ministry of Finance.

“In line with the trend of recovery in the GST revenues over past five months, the revenues for the month of January 2021 are 8% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year, which in itself was more than ₹ 1.1 lakh crore. During the month, revenues from import of goods was 16% higher and the revenues from domestic transaction (including import of services) are 6% higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year,” the official statement added.

“GST revenues above Rs 1 lakh crore for a stretch of last four months and a steep increasing trend over this period are clear indicators of rapid economic recovery post pandemic. Closer monitoring against fake-billing, deep data analytics using data from multiple sources including GST, Income-tax and Customs IT systems and effective tax administration have also contributed to the steady increase in tax revenue over last few months,” stated the Finance Ministry 

The Finance Ministry said that the average YoY growth in GST revenue over the first four months in the second half of the financial year has been 8% as compared to (-) 24% during the first half of the year.