Govt collects Rs38,000 cr between July and November in GST cess

The government on Friday said it has collected over Rs38,000 crore from cess levied on luxury, demerit and sin goods over and above the goods and services tax between July and November 2017.

The government through GST compensation cess has collected revenue to the tune of Rs38,073 crore between July and November, finance minister Arun Jaitley said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

Of this, Rs7,201 crore was collected for July, Rs7,850 crore for August, Rs8,014 crore for September, Rs7,160 crore for October and Rs7,848 crore for November, the minister stated.

Under GST, a cess is levied on luxury, demerit and sin goods to compensate for the loss suffered by the states on account of roll-out of the new indirect tax regime.

The cess, which is fixed at 15 per cent, is levied on goods with the highest tax rate of 28 per cent, which takes the total tax incidence on these goods to 43 per cent.

Goods and Services Tax (GST), which subsumed over a dozen local taxes, including excise and service tax, was rolled out on 1 July 2017.

Jaitley further said that the Centre has released Rs24,500 crore to the states to compensate for losses suffered between July-October on account of the roll-out of the new indirect tax regime.

Karnataka got maximum compensation from the centre of Rs3,271 crore, followed by Gujarat (Rs2,282 crore) and Punjab (Rs2,098 crore).

The other states that sought hefty compensation include Rajasthan (Rs1,911 crore), Bihar (Rs1,746 crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs1,520 crore), West Bengal (Rs1,008 crore) and Odisha (Rs1,020 crore).