GST collection slips below Rs 1 lakh crore mark

A day after the government data showed that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth tumbled to 5% in the first quarter this fiscal, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections for the month of August slipped below the Rs 1 lakh crore mark.

Gross GST collections in August stood at Rs 98,202 crore in August as compared to Rs 1.02 lakh crore in the previous month.

This is the second time during this year that the revenue collection from the GST has slipped below the Rs 1 lakh crore mark. First, it happened in June when the collection was Rs 99,939 crore.

The government needs the average monthly collection of over Rs one lakh to meet the budgeted target for the current fiscal.

Central GST (CGST) collections stood at Rs 17,733 crore, state GST (SGST) Rs 24,239 crore and Integrated GST (IGST) Rs 48,958 crore (including Rs 24,818 crore collected on imports) and cess at Rs 7,273 crore (including Rs 841 crore collected on imports) during August this year, a finance ministry statement said.

A total of 75.80 lakh GSTR 3B Returns were filed for the month of July up to 31 August. The latest GST collection numbers are in line with the slowing economic growth. On Friday, the GDP growth fell to over six-year low of 5% during the April-June quarter of 2019-10.

Reacting on the slowdown concerns, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government doesn't have a "magic wand" to fix the economy in one go and that government has been in consultation with various sectors for solutions. She was addressing a press conference in Chennai on Sunday.

"The government has been in consultation with a lot of sectors. Because in some sectors, the inventory is piling up... different issues for different sectors and having heard that and having spent some time to see how best we can respond, the first tranche of the announcement were made on August 23," she said.

"Last Friday I made one other set of announcements. I have also said I will come back again when the process of consultations are over and we have worked on or we can respond.... So I will be coming back to respond to sectors which have come to us and which want some relief from us…"