The Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections rose 13 per cent to over Rs 1.60 lakh crore in March. This is the fourth time in the current financial year that the gross GST collection has crossed Rs 1.5 lakh crore, marking the second-highest collection ever.

Return filing during March 2023 has been the highest ever.

Gross GST revenue collected in March 2023 is Rs 1,60,122 crore, of which Central GST is Rs 29,546 crore, state GST is Rs 37,314 crore, integrated GST is Rs 82,907 crore (including Rs 42,503 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 10,355 crore, the finance ministry said in a statement.

“The higher pace of expansion in domestic transactions compared to imports points out the healthy underlying growth momentum of the Indian economy. The April 2023 absolute collections are likely to report a healthy sequential rise,” Aditi Nayar, chief economist, Icra, said.

The total gross collection for the full 2022-23 fiscal stands at Rs 18.10 lakh crore, 22 per cent higher than the previous year. The average gross monthly collection for the full year is Rs 1.51 lakh crore.

“The average collections of Rs 1.5 trillion also reflect the maturity of the GST compliance process where all businesses are aware of the various processes by which data matching is done to ascertain non-compliance. These processes have lead to more robust compliance and timely tax payment by all business,” M.S. Mani, partner, Deloitte India, said.

Abhishek Jain, partner — indirect tax at KPMG in India, said: “Monthly GST collection for March being the second highest of all time, coupled with 22 per cent higher GST collections for FY 22-23 over last year point towards the growing trajectory of the Indian economy.

“Another cheer point is the highest ever compliance rate with 91.4 per cent of returns being filed in March, indicating the success of revenue authorities and businesses in ensuring tax compliance and preventing tax evasion”

In April last year, GST collection had touched a record high of Rs 1.68 lakh crore. Revenue for March 2023 is 13 per cent higher than the GST revenue in the same month last year, the ministry said.

During the month, revenue from the import of goods was 8 per cent higher and revenue from the domestic transactions (including import of services) is 14 per cent higher than the revenue from these sources during the same month last year.