Page 48 - GSTL_11th June 2020_Vol 37_Part 2

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CGST collection falls 87% in April
Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) collection stood at ` 5,934 crore
in April, a fall of 87 per cent compared with the ` 46,848 crore collected in the
same month last year, according to the official data.
The data primarily pertains to activities in March, which had only a few
days under the COVID-19 lockdown. For April, CGST collection could be much
lower, fear analysts.
CGST is levied on intra-State supply of both goods and services by the
Central Government. The slowdown in revenue collections could be attributed to
the nationwide lockdown and the deferment of payment as well as return filing
during March-May.
From the data, it is not possible to deduce the overall GST collection
since State GST (SGST) is usually higher than CGST. For instance, CGST stood at
` 19,183 crore and SGST at ` 25,601 crore in March, 2019-20. The Budget has
pegged CGST at ` 5.8 trillion for 2020-21, which means ` 48,333.33 a month on
average. However, the Budget figures are outdated due to the outbreak of
COVID-19 and the resultant lockdown.
Abhishek Jain, Tax Partner, EY, said the due date of GST collection for
activities in March was April 20. However, as part of the COVID-19 relief
measures, the Government had offered a 15-day interest-free grace period till
May 5. “It seems, many taxpayers have opted for the grace period and hence the
low collections,” he said. He said the larger impact was expected to be witnessed
in collections for activities in April.
Then, there is an issue of Integrated GST, as it is not clear as to how
much of it is allocated to the States. IGST stood at ` 9,749 crore in April. It was,
however, much higher than minus ` 564 crore in April last year. The minus fig-
ure represents more allocation to the States than collected by the Centre.
“Without the final IGST settlement among States and the Centre, accu-
rately determining the excess deficit in State GST revenues would be difficult,”
Jain said.
The Government had earlier announced that registered GST taxpayers
with aggregate annual turnover less than ` 5 crore can pay taxes and file
GSTR-3B due in March, April, and May by the last week of June, 2020. For such
taxpayers, no interest, late fee, and penalty were to be charged. Those with annu-
GST LAW TIMES  11th June 2020  48