GST collections in February 2023 rose 12 per cent to over Rs 1.49 lakh crore, the finance ministry said on Wednesday. The month witnessed the highest cess collection of Rs 11,931 crore since the implementation of GST in 2017.

The GST revenue in February is, however, lower than the second-highest GST collection recorded in January at over Rs 1.57 lakh crore. The collection reached an all-time high of Rs 1.68 lakh crore in April 2022.

“The gross GST revenue collected in the month of February 2023 is Rs 1,49,577 crore of which CGST is Rs 27,662 crore, SGST is Rs 34,915 crore, IGST is Rs 75,069 crore (including Rs 35,689 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 11,931 crore (including Rs 792 crore collected on import of goods),” the ministry said in a statement.

The revenues for the month of February 2023 are 12 per cent higher than the GST revenues in February 2022, which was Rs 1.33 lakh crore. Normally February, being a 28-day month, witnesses a relatively lower collection of revenue, the ministry said.

Abhishek Jain, partner (indirect tax) at KPMG in India, said, “Monthly GST collection of 1.5 lakh crore was expected to be the new normal, and this has been validated by GST collections for the month of February 2023. Another interesting data point is 15 per cent higher revenue collections from domestic transactions (including import of services) vis a vis 6 per cent higher collections from import transactions, when compared to collections of February month last year. This indicates a growing self reliance within the domestic market and is a positive sign for the Indian economy.”

The government has settled Rs 34,770 crore to CGST and Rs 29,054 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue of Centre and the States after regular settlements in the month of February 2023 is Rs 62,432 crore for CGST and Rs 63,969 crore for the SGST. In addition, Centre had also released balance GST compensation of Rs 16,982 crore for the month of June 2022 and Rs 16,524 crore to states/UTs which have sent AG certified figures for previous period.

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