Govt's indirect tax collections at Rs 10.71 lakh crore for FY21, 12% up vs FY20

The government has netted Rs 10.71 lakh crore as collections from indirect tax – including GST and non-GST – for FY21, which is 12% higher than actual revenue receipts of Rs 9.54 lakh crore for FY20. The finance ministry said in a statement that the provisional collections represent 108.2% of the Revised Estimates of Rs 9.89 lakh crore for FY21.
Net goods and service tax collections for Centre – which includes central GST, integrated GST and compensation cess - during FY21 is Rs 5.48 lakh crore, 8% lower than Rs 5.99 lakh crore in FY20.

Revised estimates of net GST collection for FY21 were Rs 5.15 lakh crore, therefore, the actual net GST collections are 106% of total targeted collection, the finance ministry added.

“The GST collections were severely affected in the first half of the financial year on account of Covid. However, in the second half, the GST collections registered a good growth and collections exceeded Rs 1 lakh crore in each of the last six months,”

March saw an all-time high of GST collection at Rs 1.24 lakh crore after collections surpassed Rs 1 lakh crore for January and February. The government took several measures to plug revenue leakage and to reduce fraudulent availment of input tax credit, including use of artificial intelligence, data analytics and machine learning, besides data sharing between direct tax and indirect tax authorities. The steps helped greatly in improving compliance in GST.

As regards customs, net tax collections stood at Rs 1.32 lakh crore during FY21, compared to Rs.1.09 lakh crore during the previous financial year, thereby registering a growth of around 21%.

Net tax collections on account of central excise and service tax (arrears) during FY21 stood at Rs 3.91 lakh crore as compared to Rs 2.45 lakh crore in FY20, a growth of more than 59%.