Finance Ministry to review GST systems on April 4: Sources

The March GST collection rose 13 percent to Rs 1.60 lakh crore

With the second-highest Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in March, the Finance Ministry has called for a meeting on April 4 to review the GSTN portal functioning and GST systems and processes, sources said.

“The April 4 meeting will be chaired by Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra. Members of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, and the GSTN CEO will be attending the meeting. The meet will focus on the GSTN portal's functioning, GST processes, ease of filing returns, and technical glitches, if any,” the official told Moneycontrol.

The GST Network provides the technology backend.

Also read: Direct tax collection for FY23 rises over 17%, exceeds revised estimates by 0.7%

The March GST collection rose 13 percent to Rs 1.60 lakh crore, the second-highest monthly mop-up since the rollout of the indirect taxation regime in July 2017, just behind the Rs 1.68 lakh crore collected last April. Also, the returns filed in March have been the highest ever, with 93.2 percent of GSTR-1 invoices and 91.4 percent of GSTR-3B returns.

“The GST collection in April is likely to be a record high,” another official told Moneycontrol.

The April 4 meeting is to ensure that the processes and the GSTN portal are all in place before GST collection begins in the new financial year, he said.

GST collections towards the year-end are always high as businesses tend to clear their delayed payments, the official said.

The Centre's share of GST revenue collection for FY23-24 has been projected to grow by 12 percent to Rs 9.56 lakh crore from the revised estimate of Rs 8.54 lakh crore in FY22-23.

Including the State GST (SGST), “The average monthly GST collection in FY23-24 is likely to be Rs 1.6 lakh crore (CGST + IGST + SGST) owing to the plugging of a lot of leakages, streamlining of e-way bills, and enforcement measures,” the official said. Inflation has also played a part in raising the GST collection.

The GST system last year had faced a lot of flak from taxpayers due to back-end issues resulting in the slow functioning of the portal, which led the Finance Ministry to extend the last date for filing taxes. The government had flagged the issues with Infosys, which manages the GSTN back-end, on more than once occasion and conveyed its dissatisfaction. The industry hopes the technical issues stand resolved.

With the expansion of the tax base and enforcement measures, GST revenue collection has come a long way.

GST was rolled out on July 1, 2017. That month, Rs 95,633 was collected. From that low of Rs 32,172 in May 2020 during the pandemic, to Rs 1.6 lakh crore this March, GST has come a long way.

Boosting GST revenue used to be a challenge, with the average monthly collection remaining stubbornly below Rs 1 lakh crore.

“Higher tax collections indicate that efforts to crack down on tax evasion and increase compliance are paying off. It would be interesting to see if the growth story continues in FY 23-24. In the coming year, big data analytics and AI will be the most prominent tools that will help the tax department identify and arrest tax evasion,” Rajat Mohan, Senior Partner, AMRG & Associates, told Moneycontrol.