Kolkata: Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections in war-torn April jumped by almost 9% against April 2025 and settled at a record Rs 2.43 trillion, government data has revealed. Net GST collection for the month was Rs 2.11 lakh crore. Incidentally, the GST revenue in March 2026 was just above Rs 2 lakh crore, which happened to be the third highest collection for any month in FY26. The trigger in April is a huge boost in the imports, which jumped as high as 25.8%. In March too the rise in GST collections from imports was impressive — 17.8%. In a sense this was also a reflection of the falling Indian currency against the US dollar which pushed up the rupee value of imports. GST is closely related to consumption. Therefore, the rise in GST would have been very high had it not been for the revenue proceeds from imports.
GST from domestic transactions up 4.3%
The rate of growth of GST gross collection from domestic transactions was only 4.3%, which paled before the GST mop up via imports. GST revenue from domestic transactions stood at Rs 1.85 lakh crore in April, while GST revenues from imports went up to Rs 57,580 crore. GST refunds rose by 19.3% to touch Rs 31,793 crore. After adjusting for refunds, net Goods and Services Tax (GST) mop-up was up 7.3% to reach almost Rs 2.11 lakh crore.
Strong collection figures in these states
In April major states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat continued to showed robust GST collections. Growth was also significant in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Data also suggested that Kerala and Telangana witnessed exceptional surges in collections. But collections lagged in states such as Bihar, Assam and West Bengal.
GST collection in FY26
For the entire previous financial year (FY26), GST collections exceeded Rs 22.27 lakh crore, which marked a 8.3% rise in year-on-year terms. In May 2025, GST collection was more than Rs 2.01 lakh crore. To boost consumption in the economy, the government slashed GST on hundreds of items on September 3, 2025. It led to a rise in consumption but the US-Iran war and the rise of imported inflation, thanks to the rise in input costs of various industries, wiped away a lot of the gains the GST cut resulted in.