Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia today said tax collections in March — the last month of fiscal — is higher compared to April and hence monthly GST collections are not comparable. “As per the experience of last 5 years, the average collection of taxes on goods and services during April is approx 7.1 per cent of the annual taxes as against 11 per cent for March. “April is traditionally the month of lowest monthly collection,” Adhia said in a series of tweets. Revenues from Goods and Services Tax (GST) had crossed a record Rs 1.03 lakh crore for returns filed in April. GST returns filed in May fetched Rs 94,016 crore revenue to the government.
The returns filed in April were on account of sales in March and the returns filed in May showed business activity in April. “Going by this past experience of indirect taxes and the robust trend in GDP Growth, the April collection of GST indicates a very promising future for indirect tax revenue,” Adhia said. He said comparing April GST revenue collection figure with that of March will not be correct.
