GST collection falls for second straight month to ₹85,174 crore; was over ₹95,000 crore in July 2017

Revenue collection under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) fell for the second consecutive month in February by ₹1,144 crore to ₹85,174 crore. The collection had marginally slipped in January to ₹86,318 crore from ₹86,703 crore in December 2017.

"The total revenue received under GST for February 2018 (received upto March 26) has been ₹85,174 crore," the Finance Ministry said in a statement. It added that 59.51 lakh GST returns were filed for February till March 25.

"This is 69% of total taxpayers which are required to file monthly returns," it said. Of the ₹85,174 crore, ₹14,945 crore has been collected as Central GST (CGST), ₹20,456 crore as State GST (SGST), ₹42,456 crore as Integrated GST (IGST) and ₹7,317 crore compensation cess, the Finance Ministry said.

It added that ₹12,140 crore was being transferred from IGST to CGST account and ₹13,424 crores from IGST to SGST account by way of settlement of funds on account of cross utilisation of IGST credit.

"Thus, a total amount of ₹25,564 crores is being transferred from IGST to CGST and SGST account by way of settlement," the Ministry said.

Before picking up in December 2017 to touch ₹86,703 crore, the revenue collection had fallen for two consecutive months from over ₹92,000 crore in September to ₹83,346 crore in October and ₹80,808 crore in November.

The GST collection for July was over ₹95,000 crore while for August it was more than ₹91,000 crore.