₹2.31 lakh crore, and the import half grew three times faster
October's collection is the fastest growth in over four years. Domestic revenue rose 15.8%; revenue on imports rose 42.2%. The gap between those two is this month's crude bill arriving as tax.
The total is the headline, and the split is the news. Gross GST collection for October came in at about ₹2.31 lakh crore, up 22.9% on a year earlier and the fastest growth in more than four years; net of refunds it rose 25.6% to around ₹2.03 lakh crore. Underneath that single number are two very different legs. Domestic revenue grew 15.8% to ₹1,59,044 crore. Revenue from imports grew 42.2% — nearly three times as fast.
A 42% jump in tax on imports is not, by itself, evidence of a booming economy. IGST on imports is charged on the landed value, so when the landed value rises the tax rises with it whether or not a single extra container came in. This paper has spent two issues on Brent going from $102.70 on 2 October to $116.72 on the 23rd before easing to around $113 on the 30th. That is the same event, read off a different meter. The country is paying more for what it was already buying, and the exchequer is collecting a percentage of the increase.
For an importing business the consequence is a working-capital one, not a tax one, and it is easy to miss because the tax eventually comes back. IGST paid at the port is creditable, so a 42% larger payment is a 42% larger sum of your money sitting with the government between the bill of entry and the month you set it off. Nothing has been lost; the timing has moved. If your import volumes are flat and your IGST outgo is sharply up, that difference is not a cost line to absorb — it is cash that has to be funded for three to six weeks longer than last year, in a quarter when funding is exactly what has become harder.