Mumbai, Sep 1 (IANS): Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in August rose 28 per cent to Rs 1.43 lakh crore, with monthly GST revenue remaining more than Rs 1.4 lakh crore for six months in a row, the Finance Ministry said.

"This is a clear impact of various measures taken by the Council in the past to ensure better compliance. Better reporting coupled with economic recovery has been having a positive impact on the GST revenues on a consistent basis," a ministry statement said.

The gross GST revenue collected in August 2022 stood at Rs 1,43,612 crore of which Central GST is Rs 24,710 crore, State GST is Rs 30,951 crore, Integrated GST is Rs 77,782 crore (including Rs 42,067 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 10,168 crore (including Rs 1,018 crore collected on import of goods), it said.

The government has settled Rs 29,524 crore to CGST and Rs 25,119 crore to SGST from IGST. The total revenue of Centre and the States in the month of August 2022 after regular settlement is Rs 54,234 crore for CGST and Rs 56,070 crore for the SGST. The revenues for the month of August 2022.

Here's what experts are saying:

M.S. Mani, Partner, Deloitte India: "These collections certainly reflect the strength of the underlying economic factors as they have established a new normal of Rs 1.4 lakh crore. With the onset of the festival season, which is typically a large consumption driver for all businesses, the GST collections in the coming months would also be expected to be robust."

Vivek Jalan, Partner, Tax Connect Advisory, a multi-disciplinary Tax Consultancy Firm: "The GST revenue collections keeps showing a substantial increase over last year and now Rs 1.4 trillion per month is the new normal collection. This is even amidst a concern of global slowdown. Among other things, it also reflects the impact of the GST rate increases due to the decisions taken by the GST Council in its 47th Meeting, which was implemented from 18th July 2022. The GST rates in almost all sectors - food grains, dairy, solar equipments, printing ink, leather items, capital goods, infrastructure, real estate, hotels, hospitals, etc were increased.

"Further, now the SGST Departments are also getting aggressive for collections as the period for compensation cess is already over and states would no more be compensated by the Centre for a shortfall in the revenues. Industry-wise action, have of late been an area of interest to the revenue authorities. For instance, in recent massive investigations in a state investigation, authorities are disputing the classification of 'fly ash blocks' by trying to distinguish them to artificially related them to concrete blocks. Therefore it is imperative for Industry Captains to have a close watch on developments in their industry

"It is understood that revenue targets have been set for the state officers also which they would now try to achieve. Again it is important to note that even if a Dealer is registered with the Centre, the State can still investigate it on a specific issue and vice versa."

Abhishek Jain, Partner, Indirect Tax, KPMG in India: "Continuing the positive trend, this month's GST collections are 28 per cent higher than the collections as compared to same month of last FY., leading to a 33 per cent year on year growth. The consistent high collections indicate upward economic trajectory despite fluctuating Covid cases and to some extent attributable to inflation and better compliance being ensured by the government."