NEW DELHI: India's gross Goods and Services Tax collections rose 14.7 per cent in September from a year earlier to ₹2,03,521 crore, official data released on October 1 showed. It was the third month in a row that collections stayed above ₹2 lakh crore.
Central GST accounted for ₹37,762 crore, state GST for ₹45,363 crore and integrated GST for ₹1,20,396 crore, IANS reported. Net GST revenue, after refunds, rose 18.1 per cent to ₹1,76,520 crore.
As in August, taxes collected on imports grew much faster than domestic collections. Gross revenue from imports rose 25.9 per cent to ₹65,525 crore, while gross domestic revenue rose 10.1 per cent to ₹1,37,996 crore, from ₹1,25,334 crore a year earlier.
For the first half of the financial year, from April to September, gross collections stood at ₹12,46,278 crore, up 11.6 per cent.
In August, collections had risen 14.8 per cent to ₹1,99,853 crore, again driven by imports: import revenue that month grew 29 per cent to ₹62,604 crore, and domestic collections 9.3 per cent to ₹1,37,249 crore. Refunds in August jumped 67.9 per cent to ₹31,795 crore.
Maharashtra collected the most domestic GST in September, ₹29,986 crore, up 15 per cent, according to state-wise figures reported by Business Today. Karnataka collected ₹13,884 crore, up 16 per cent, and Gujarat ₹12,222 crore, up 17 per cent. Uttar Pradesh and Telangana each grew 18 per cent, to ₹8,882 crore and ₹5,327 crore.
Among the larger states, Assam grew fastest, by 88 per cent, to ₹2,415 crore from ₹1,287 crore a year earlier. Manipur's collections rose 145 per cent to ₹92 crore and Arunachal Pradesh's 46 per cent to ₹136 crore.
Several states collected less than a year ago. Tamil Nadu's collections fell 5 per cent to ₹10,188 crore. Uttarakhand's fell 23 per cent to ₹1,277 crore, Himachal Pradesh's 21 per cent to ₹640 crore, and Jammu and Kashmir's 29 per cent to ₹487 crore.
The GST Council, which brings together the Centre and the states, holds its 57th meeting in New Delhi on October 7. It comes a year after the Council's major rate rationalisation, which from September 22, 2025 reduced the structure to two main slabs of 5 per cent and 18 per cent, with a 40 per cent rate for specified luxury and sin goods.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said the meeting will focus on process reforms under "GST 2.0", including e-invoicing and input tax credit rules, and government sources have indicated that no major rate changes are expected. The Council is also expected to review how last year's rate changes have been implemented.
The issues likely to come up include simpler GST registration, especially for businesses that pass on large amounts of tax credit; easier filing and matching of invoices; and mismatches between buyers' and sellers' returns, IBTimes India reported. The Council may consider ways to protect genuine buyers who are denied input tax credit because a supplier failed to report a transaction or pay the tax, while still preventing fraudulent claims. Automation of some registration and cancellation procedures could also be discussed, with the aim of making registration more uniform for taxpayers dealing with different central and state GST authorities. The broader objective, IBTimes said, is to "reduce compliance costs and GST-related litigation for businesses."
The 18 per cent GST on the merchant discount rate, the fee charged on some digital payments, could also be reviewed, IBTimes India reported, citing Business Today, though it noted that the issue was not on the official agenda. None of these changes takes effect until the Council decides and the notifications are issued.
