GST collections cross Rs 1 lakh crore mark for third straight month in May to Rs 1,00,289 crore

India's goods and services tax (GST) revenue collections crossed Rs 1 lakh crore for the third straight month in May to Rs 1,00,289 crore, despite slowdown in the industrial activities. However, GST mop-up in May was lower than all-time high of Rs 1.13 lakh crore in the month of April, highest ever since the indirect tax regime was rolled out on July 1, 2017.

GST collections rose by 6.67 per cent over the revenue of Rs 94,016 crore reported in May 2018. The revenue in May, 2019 was 2.21 per cent higher than the monthly average of GST revenue in financial year 2018-19 (Rs 98,114 crore), according to a data released by the Ministry of Finance.

"Out of total GST mop-up, Rs 17,811 crore was CGST, Rs 24,462 crore was SGST, IGST was Rs 49,891 crore (including Rs 24,875 crore collected on imports) and Cess was Rs 8,125 crore (including Rs 953 crore collected on imports)," the data showed.

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The total number of GSTR 3B Returns filed for the month of April up to 31st May, 2019 was 72.45 lakh, higher than 72.13 lakh in the last month. The GSTR-3B Form is the summary of outward supplies, input tax credit (ITC) claimed and payment of net tax.

"The government has settled Rs 18,098 crore to CGST and Rs 14,438 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 May, 2019 is Rs 35,909 crore for CGST and Rs 38,900 crore for the SGST," it said.

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An amount of Rs 18,934 crore has been released to the states as GST compensation for the months of February-March, 2019, it added.

For the financial year 2019-20, the government has set a GST collection target of Rs 6.10 lakh crore from CGST and Rs 1.01 lakh crore as compensation cess. The IGST balance has been pegged at Rs 50,000 crore for the fiscal.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar