GST Revenue collection for August 2018 close to ninety-four thousand crore rupees

The total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after settlement including provisional settlement of Rs. 12,000 crore in the month of August, 2018 is Rs. 36,963 crore for CGST and Rs. 41,136 crore for the SGST. For the bi-monthly period June-July, 2018, compensation of Rs. 14,930 crore has been released to the States.

The revenues collected in August, 2018 of Rs. 93,960 crore is slightly lower than July, 2018 collection of Rs. 96,483 crore, and June, 2018 collection of Rs. 95,610 crore. The chart shows trends in revenue during the current year.

One of the main factors for the dip in tax revenues is probable postponement of sale of items for which tax rate was reduced by the Council as the decision to reduce the tax rate was taken in meeting held on 21st July while the notification of the reduced rate came into effect only from 27th July, 2018. Since it would have taken some time for the market to pass on the benefit of reduced taxes, consumers would have postponed their decision to buy expecting the benefit. The actual impact of reduction of rate of taxes would be observed only from next month onwards as the rate reduction would have got affected only in last few days of the month.

Even past trend of indirect tax collection shows that while July collections are 8.2% of the total annual collections, August collections are at a lower level of 7.7% of the total annual collections. This is another reason for lower collections during the month of August as compared to that in July.