The goods and services tax (GST) collections jumped 10.4 per cent to over Rs 1.72 lakh crore in January — the second-highest monthly collection ever and the third month in this fiscal with a collection of more than Rs 1.70 lakh crore.
Cumulative GST collection for the 10 months of the fiscal till January reached Rs 16.69 lakh crore against Rs 14.96 lakh crore collected a year ago. The highest-ever monthly GST collection was recorded in April at Rs 1.87 lakh crore.
M.S. Mani, partner, Deloitte India, said: “The second highest ever collections would provide even more headroom for embarking upon the next stage of GST reforms. These collections relate to supply transactions of goods and services during December where there was considerable emphasis on completing audits and investigations relating to earlier years.”
Abhishek Jain, partner and national head, indirect tax, KPMG, said voluntary payments by businesses for 2022-23 during the finalisation of annual returns and reconciliation statements in December were a major reason for the rise in collections.
Deficit target
Ahead of the interim budget, the Union government’s fiscal deficit touched Rs 9.82 lakh crore or 55 per cent of the annual target in December, according to data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Wednesday.
In the corresponding period last year, deficit reached 59.8 per cent of the budget estimates of 2022-23. For 2023-24, the government’s fiscal deficit is estimated to be at Rs 17.86 lakh crore or 5.9 per cent of GDP against 6.4 per cent last year.
The government’s capital expenditure for April-December stood at 67.3 per cent of the target, with the third quarter expanding by 24 per cent.
Capex more than doubled yearly to Rs 88,000 crore in December, offsetting the out-turn in the previous two months. The government needs to spend around Rs 3.3 trillion in the fourth quarter to meet the full-year target for capex this fiscal.
Core sector growth slows
The growth of eight key infrastructure sectors slowed to a 14-month low of 3.8 per cent in December on account of poor performance of sectors such as crude oil, electricity, steel and cement, according to the official data released on Wednesday.
The core sector growth in November was 7.9 per cent.
