GST collection tops Rs 94,000 cr for July from 44 lakh businesses

As many as six lakh more businesses have filed returns and paid taxes in last one week, taking maiden revenue collections from Goods and Services Tax (GST) to about Rs 94,700 crore.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had last week stated that 38.38 lakh businesses had filed their returns and paid Rs 92,283 crore in taxes for the month of July - the first month of implementation of independent India's biggest tax reform, the GST.

A top official said since then the number of returns filed has gone up to 44 lakh and over Rs 2,500 crore more has come in as taxes.

The collections so far are from 74 per cent of the total taxpayer base and more people are likely to come in when the final returns are filed in GSTR 1, 2 and 3.

Separately, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia at an event in New Delhi said 11 lakh businesses have not yet completed registration for the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The GST, which unifies more than a dozen central and state levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT, kicked in from July 1 and requires all tax payers to register on the new tax platform, GST Network.

He said 72.5 lakh people have migrated into the GST regime but only 44 lakh have so far filed returns.

There are six crore private enterprises in the country which also indicates that there is the further scope of widening.

While Adhia did not indicate the tax collections that have been made so far, the official said revenue mop up is likely to further go up when all the tax payers file returns.

The collections so far are in excess of the finance ministry's internal estimate of Rs 91,000 crore.

The government had earlier this week extended time for businesses to file returns. Now sales return or GSTR-1 for July will have to be filed by September 10 instead of September 5 earlier and purchase returns or GSTR-2 would be filed by September 25 instead of September 10 earlier.