The Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue collected in the national Capital in September amounted to ₹4,741 crore, a 32% growth over the corresponding period last year, data released by the Delhi government said on Tuesday.
In August with ₹4,349 crore GST collection, the increase in monthly revenue was 21% over the corresponding period last year.
These numbers also include central GST as well as the state numbers.
Since GST is a consumption-based tax, the growth reflects that business activities and consumption have remained strong in the capital despite high inflation.
In the first two quarters of the financial year 2022-23, the total GST collection is ₹27,741 crore which was ₹21,505 crore in the corresponding period in financial year 2021-22.
According to documents shared by Delhi government, ₹4,327 crore was collected in July, ₹4,313 crore in June and ₹4,113 in May and ₹5,871 crore in April.
The experts attributed the rise in GST collection to increasing consumer demand (especially in sectors that were affected by the pandemic), improved compliance systems, and increasing inflation across the board.
The country has registered a record GST collection of ₹1.48 lakh crore in September, suggesting the collections were robust across several states.
In August 2021, the total GST collection was ₹3,605 crore which increased ₹4,349 crore in August 2022.
The month before as well the year-on-year growth was strong with ₹4,327 crore GST revenue being collected in July 2022 in comparison to ₹3,815 crore in 2021.
The total collection in June 2022 was ₹4,313 crore as compared to ₹2,656 in June 2021.
In May 2022, the total GST collection from Delhi was ₹4,113 crore as compared to ₹2,771 crore in May 2021.
A Delhi government official said they are leveraging data analytics and trying to widen the tax base by identifying cases of fraud and critically examining tax filing by organisations against related variables.
Suyash Rai, fellow at Carnegie India, said, “Since GST rates change from one year to another, it is difficult to interpret year-on-year growth in collection in terms of what they indicate about the underlying economic activity unless item-wise information is available.”
Rai further added that in the last few quarters, the growth in GST collection has mostly tracked the growth in nominal private consumption.
“If we assume that the association persists, then the GST collection indicates continued consumption growth. However, since inflation also accelerated in August, the deflator would be high, and the real growth may be modest,” he added.