(PTI) GST collections in June witnessed a 56 per cent year-on-year rise to over ₹1.44 lakh crore, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday, as she exhorted tax officers to ensure the system is so transparent that even an iota of discretion is not there.
The gross GST collection in June is the second-highest collection after April when it was about ₹1.68 lakh crore.
Speaking at the GST Day celebrations, the minister said within five years of its implementation, the Goods and Services Tax is showing its potential and ₹1.40 lakh crore is now the "rough bottom line" for monthly GST revenue collections.
"The gross GST revenue collection for the month of June is ₹1,44,616 crore, 56 per cent rise from the same month last year. So, the trend that was being talked about, we are now reversing that and showing that the GST revenues remain above ₹1.40 lakh crore. So, ₹1.40 lakh crore is the rough bottom line, we are not going below that. We will remain above that," she said.
This is the fifth time that the monthly GST collections crossed the ₹1.40-lakh-crore mark since the inception of GST and the fourth month at a stretch since March 2022, the finance ministry said in a statement.
"Coupled with economic recovery, anti-evasion activities, especially action against fake billers have been contributing to the enhanced GST," the ministry added.
Of the ₹1.44 lakh crore GST collected in June, Central GST is ₹25,306 crore, State GST is ₹32,406 crore, Integrated GST is ₹75,887 crore (including ₹40,102 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is ₹11,018 crore (including ₹1,197 crore collected on import of goods).
The gross cess collection in June is the highest since the introduction of GST.
Revenues from the sale of goods and services were ₹92,800 crore in June 2021, while last month, it was over ₹1.41 lakh crore. Besides, the average monthly gross GST collection for the April-June quarter of the current fiscal was ₹1.51 lakh crore.
During June, revenues from import of goods were 55 per cent higher and the revenues from domestic transactions (including import of services) were 56 per cent, higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.
The total number of e-way bills generated in May 2022 was 7.3 crore, which is 2 per cent less than the 7.4 crore e-way bills generated in April 2022, the ministry added.
Addressing tax officers, Sitharaman said the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has been nimble to suggestions from industry and the tax arbitrage that existed between states before the GST rollout has been removed.
The GST has brought about compliance and removed cascading and overlap of taxes, Sitharaman said.
"GST has removed discretion to a large extent, there is no way for rent-seeking... But I would still say we should be better performing in terms of removing even one little iota of discretion. If it is there, we should just make sure that the system is so transparent, that the whisper of allegation of discretion somewhere should be completely removed," she added.
A nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST), which subsumed 17 local levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT and 13 cesses, was rolled out on July 1, 2017.