Revenue collections under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) have risen marginally in December after falling for two straight months. The Finance Ministry on Thursday said the total revenue mop-up under GST for December 2017 (received up to January 24) was ₹86,703 crore.
It stood at ₹80,808 crore in November and ₹83,000 crore in October. Before that, it was significantly higher at ₹92,150 crore in September.
The Ministry further said that one crore taxpayers have been registered under GST, of which 17.11 lakh are composition dealers, who are required to file returns every quarter. “For the quarter July to September 2017, a total of 8.10 lakh returns were filed by such (composition) dealers who paid ₹335.86 crore as GST,” it said. Meanwhile for the quarter October to December 2017, 9.25 lakh returns were filed by the composition dealers, who paid a total of ₹421.35 crore as GST.
Additionally, 56.30 lakh GSTR-3B returns were filed for December 2017 till January 24, 2018.
Tax experts said that GST revenues seem to have stabilised to some extent and will rise further in the coming months.
“The increase in revenue collection is on expected lines and means that gradually GST is stabilising and the impact of transition issues is waning. This, coupled with a few anti-evasion measures being taken, is likely to result in a further increase of revenues in the January to March quarter,” said Pratik Jain, Leader (Indirect Tax), PwC.