• Notification Date: 20-12-2023
• Notification No: N/A

Number of GST Return Filers up by 65% to 1.13 crore in 5 years, 90% submission done on time: FinMin

The Finance Ministry said on Sunday, December 17, that the GST return filers numbers rose about 65 per cent to 1.13 crore in 5 years till April 2023 as compliance by taxpayers improved. In addition, the number of active taxpayers registered under GST has also increased to 1.40 crore as compared to 1.06 crore in April 2018. 

In November, the monthly total GST collection was Rs 1.68 lakh crore. Overall, GST collection has surpassed Rs 1.60 lakh crore for the sixth time in the current fiscal year. 

According to the data shared by the ministry, 90 per cent of eligible taxpayers are filing GSTR-3B returns by the end of the filing month in the current fiscal year, which previously stood at 68 per cent in 2017-18, the first year when GST was rolled out. 

"Simplification in Rules and Procedure in GST has resulted in increase in return filing percentage by eligible taxpayers," said the ministry in a post on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter). 

On July 1, 2017, a national Goods and Services Tax (GST) came into effect. This tax included over a dozen municipal taxes, including VAT, service tax, excise and more. 

As of April 2023, there were 1.13 crore GSTR-3B filers, up from 72.49 lakh in April 2018. GSTR-3B is the monthly return form for filing outward supplies details and tax payments. 

"With effective policy and systemic changes in GST, the compliance level in GST return filing has improved over the years," the ministry said in another post on X. Increase in return filing across the years indicates improvement in compliance level, the ministry added. 

Since its implementation on July 1, 2017, the Goods and Services Tax collection has been increasing annually. According to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the average gross monthly mop-up for the current fiscal year is Rs 1.66 lakh crore. She made this statement earlier this month in the Lok Sabha. In April, the collection reached a record-breaking Rs 1.87 lakh crore.