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The finance ministry has said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections remained above the Rs 1-lakh-crore mark for the sixth month in a row in March 2021, rising 27 per cent annually to record Rs 1.23 lakh crore. Of this, central GST stood at Rs 22,973 crore, state GST at Rs 29,329 crore, integrated GST at Rs 62,842 crore (including Rs 31,097 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess at Rs 8,757 crore (including Rs 935 crore collected on import of goods). GST revenue in March 2020 was Rs 97,590 crore.

The ministry said the steep increasing trend in goods and services tax is a clear indication of rapid economic recovery post pandemic. It also said that closer monitoring against fake-billing, deep data analytics using data from multiple sources including GST, income tax and customs IT systems and effective tax administration have also contributed to the steady increase in tax revenue over past few months. During March 2021, revenues from import of goods were 70 percent higher and the revenues from domestic transaction were 17 percent more than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.

It further said the GST revenues declined 41 per cent and 8 per cent in the June and September quarters, respectively. However, with economic recovery, the mop-up grew 8 per cent and 14 per cent in December and March quarters of this financial year. GST collections, which directly reflect the state of economic activity, had plummeted to a record low of Rs 32,172 crore in April 2020, after the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.