“A nearly 10% growth in collections compared to last year reflects economic stability and strong tax compliance by companies,” said Abhishek Jain, partner and head, indirect tax, KPMG in India.
The average monthly collection in FY25 was ₹1.84 lakh crore against ₹1.68 lakh crore in the preceding fiscal year. “With fiscal year-end adjustments and reconciliations underway, we can expect a further surge in month-on-month growth in the next set of collections,” Jain said.
April collections are normally higher. “This sustained revenue growth highlights the government’s continued focus on enhancing compliance and broadening the tax base,” said Krishan Arora, partner, Grant Thornton Bharat.
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Curbing Revenue Leakages
In April 2024, GST collection had hit a record high of ₹2.10 lakh crore. “Initiatives like the Invoice Matching System (IMS) are expected to further curb revenue leakages by improving the accuracy of tax reporting and reducing discrepancies, thus reinforcing the strength and resilience of the GST framework,” said Arora.The growth in most large states like Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan was in the double digits, but that in other states like Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu has been in the range of -1% to 7%, which is highly unusual for the financial year-ending month.Bihar, Meghalaya, Goa and Union territories reported impressive on-year growth rates of over 20% in March.
“There continues to be a wide variation in the growth rates of GST collections across key manufacturing and consuming states,” said MS Mani, partner, Deloitte India. “There is a need to understand the reasons for the same by evaluating the sectoral growth and compliance rates in these states.”
Total refunds in March rose 41% to ₹19,615 crore from the year earlier. After adjusting for refunds, net GST revenue for March was ₹1.76 lakh crore, up 7.3% over a year ago. “One can expect more rigour in GST audits and scrutiny to plug the leakages. The slowdown in consumption is an area which also needs to be addressed,” said Pratik Sinha, partner, PwC.
