Net GST Collection Rises by 7.3% to Rs. 1.77 Trillion in March 2025, Reflecting Success of Self Reliance

As per the official data revealed, the central and state governments have collected Rs. 1.77 trillion in Goods and Services Tax (GST) in March 2025, after accounting for refunds, marking a 7.3% increase compared to the same period the previous year.

After accounting for refunds in the Financial Year 2024-25, the GST collection has increased 8.6% to Rs. 19.56 trillion, as data collected by the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) company. It is the company owned by the state that processes tax returns.

The government gave back Rs. 19,615 crore in GST refunds in March 2025. Over the whole financial year, businesses received Rs. 2.52 trillion in GST refunds. This money was returned because businesses had either paid more tax than needed or because of other factors.

In March 2025, the government collected Rs. 1.38 trillion in the form of tax from sales done within India, which is a 9.3% increase compared to last year. However, the tax collected from imports (called IGST) stayed almost the same at Rs. 38,830 crore.

Additionally, the value of goods imported into India dropped by 16% in February, totaling $ 50.96 billion.

In March 2025, the tax on transactions conducted in February is collected.

On a yearly basis, the net revenue earned by the government from domestic sales has increased by 10.1%. However, the tax from imports (IGST) and the additional tax on imports only increased by 3.5%. This could be a sign that India’s efforts to reduce dependence on imports (through the Atma Nirbhar Bharat initiative) and encourage local production through schemes such as the production-linked incentives (PLI) are working, according to an expert at Deloitte India.

Before accounting for tax refunds, the government collected Rs. 1.96 trillion in March 2025, which has shown an increment of 9.9% compared to the previous year. For the entire financial year, the total revenue collected was Rs. 22 trillion, showing an increment of 9.4% from the previous year.

Strong Economy

A tax expert has said that the continuous increase in GST collections shows that the domestic economy is strong and able to handle global economic issues. This is mainly because of strong consumer spending.

The GST Council, a federal indirect tax body, is currently looking for further tax rate rationalization, which can make the GST structure simpler, remove tax irregularities such as raw materials attracting higher taxes than finished products and offer tax relief on some selected products and services. A few proposals in this regard are being examined by the ministerial panel with Bihar deputy chief minister Samrat Chaudhary. The panel’s suggestions might be discussed in the next GST Council meeting.

In March 2025, from the major state economies, a yearly increment of 10% in GST revenue receipts was disclosed in Uttar Pradesh’s economy. Meanwhile, a growth of 14% was disclosed in Maharashtra’s economy, 6% in Gujarat’s economy and 7% in Tamil Nadu’s economy. In Delhi, a 5% growth in the GST revenue was seen in March 2025.

Experts said that the completion of tax cases for underpaid taxes in the last three financial years has helped increase tax collection in FY25. They also mentioned that better data collection and reporting have contributed to the growth in tax collections.