GST collections: Tamil Nadu & Karnataka keep up with their impressive performance in South

Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have outpaced the all India average in GST collections in July, keeping up with their impressive performance in the first four months of this fiscal year. Telangana, on the other hand, has slipped into single digit year-on-year growth rate in July after clocking a double digit growth in April, May and June.

Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh recorded a single digit growth year-on-year in two of the four months this fiscal year, including July. In May, it managed to equal the national average growth rate of 11%.

Out of four months, Kerala exceeded the national average in June and equalled it in May. In April and July, the coastal state fell below the national average, compared to the same period last year.

Maharashtra remains on top of charts, clocking Rs 26,064 crore in July, leaving Karnataka at a distant second at Rs 11,505 crore. Tamil Nadu is trying to catch up with Karnataka with Rs 10,022 crore in July.

In the first four months of this fiscal, Karnataka clocked a 20% growth rate, leaving all other large states behind, though Maharashtra has been ahead in absolute collection numbers. Maharashtra clocked a 18% growth rate, while Tamil Nadu registered 18%, Telangana 13% and Andhra Pradesh 9%, growth rates.

Karnataka’s commercial taxes commissioner C Shikha told ET that the increased growth rate has been due to better compliance by tax payers. Her department too, in addition, has ramped up enforcement activities by using system based analytics to identify cases.MoS Finance Pankaj Caudhary informed the Lok Sabha on July 31 that the monthly average gross GST collection for the fiscal years 2021-22 and 2022-23 have shown 30% and 22% year on year growth, respectively. In direct tax collection too, Bengaluru is neck and neck with Delhi as the city has recorded a blistering growth in income tax collection in the five-year period to 2022-23. Reports quoted tax officials saying the start-up ecosystem and expansion of tech sector in Bengaluru leading to new jobs and increase in pay have fattened the tax kitty. In fact, in 2021-22, Bengaluru beat Delhi to emerge as the second highest direct tax paying city after Mumbai.