GST revenue crosses ₹2 lakh crore in September

India’s gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue in September crossed ₹2 lakh crore, registering a 14.7% year-on-year increase, government data released on Thursday showed.

Gross GST collections stood at ₹2,03,521 crore in September 2026, compared with ₹1,77,365 crore in September 2025. The collections reflect transactions undertaken in August.

Net revenue after refunds surged 18.1% to ₹1,76,520 crore in September this year, from ₹1,49,517 crore in September 2025.

Experts attributed the stronger growth in net revenue partly to comparatively lower refunds. Refunds in September 2026 stood at ₹27,001 crore, down 3% from ₹27,848 crore in the same month last year.

Experts also pointed to the sharp rise in import-linked GST revenue compared with collections from domestic business activity.

Gross GST revenue from domestic business activities in September 2026 was ₹1,37,996 crore, up 10.1% from ₹1,25,334 crore in the same month of 2025. Import-linked gross revenue, meanwhile, surged 25.9% to ₹65,525 crore, from ₹52,031 crore a year earlier.

“One thing worth noting is that GST on imports is growing much faster than domestic collections. The government deserves credit for the work done so far under the production linked incentive schemes, which have laid a solid base for domestic manufacturing. But the import numbers suggest it is time to recalibrate some of these schemes, so that the gains from this groundwork are fully realized,” said Saurabh Agarwal, tax partner at EY India.

Pratik Jain, partner at Price Waterhouse & Co LLP, said: “GST collections remain strong, but it’s interesting to see that domestic revenues grew 10.1% compared with almost 26% growth in import GST. This suggests a meaningful part of the headline buoyancy is coming from imports. At the same time, cumulative refunds are up nearly 19%, which is a positive signal for businesses from a liquidity standpoint. Sustained domestic growth will be important to watch from here.”

Cumulatively, gross GST collections in the first half of the current financial year (April-September 2026) jumped 11.6% to over ₹12.46 lakh crore, compared with ₹11.17 lakh crore in the corresponding period of 2025-26.

With refunds rising 21.4% year-on-year to ₹1,04,357 crore during the first half of 2026-27, net collections in April-September 2026 stood at over ₹10.66 lakh crore, registering 10.4% growth from over ₹9.65 lakh crore in the corresponding period of 2025, according to provisional data.

MS Mani, partner at Deloitte India, said: “Increased focus on complicated and increasing number GST audits undertaken this year appear to be yielding results in the form of the gross monthly GST collection, despite last year being on higher GST rates compared to the current year.”

The GST 2.0 tax-rate rationalisation took effect from September 22, 2025.

According to Mani, strong revenue flows would allow the GST Council, at its next meeting scheduled for October 7, to decide on several issues, including relaxation of input tax credit restrictions, “without being unduly worried on the impact of such measures” on GST collections.