Even as the country marked the seventh anniversary of the implementation of the Goods & Services Tax (GST) on 1 July, eyebrows are being raised over the discontinuation of the release of monthly tax collection data by the Centre.

The union Ministry of Finance has been issuing a formal statement on the first day of every month providing a comprehensive overview of GST collections.

The most recent data release hosted on the Press Information Bureau website for GST collections in the month of May was released on June 1 (https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2022459).

For June, GST collections stand at Rs 1.74 lakh crore. This data was not shared in a formal press release, but provided to reporters informally.

Henceforth, only the gross total collections amount will be released, sources said.

No reasons have been formally given for the move that comes just weeks ahead of the first budget of the third term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi led NDA government. Rising prices, and slowing consumption have led to demands for tax relief including the high levies of GST on many services including health insurance among others.

Gross collections of GST have risen significantly over the years. As per the last release on June 1, gross GST collections in the first two months of the current financial year stood at Rs 3.83 lakh crore. “This represents an impressive 11.3 per cent year-on-year growth, driven by a strong increase in domestic transactions (up 14.2 per cent) and marginal increase in imports (up 1.4 per cent). After accounting for refunds, the net GST revenue in till May 2024 stood at Rs 3.36 lakh crore, reflecting a growth of 11.6 per cent compared to the same period last year”, the release said.

Earlier, the detailed data release provided a breakdown of monthly collections for central Goods and Services Tax, state Goods and Services Tax, integrated Goods and Services Tax, as well as cess collection data.

Until May, the ministry had also shared key highlights of the monthly inter-governmental settlement, highlighting the total central and state revenue.

Also shared were two charts explaining the trends in gross GST revenues with state-wise figures and a comparison to the collections from the year earlier.

Discontinuing the monthly GST data release means that now if the state-wise GST data breakup is to be released, it will only happen if the states are willing to disclose it.

Not too long ago, former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian raised concerns regarding India’s GST numbers on social media platform X. He said the focus should be on revenues, net of refunds, and not on headline collections.

Unless revisited, from now on, the data is likely to mostly have headline figures such as gross GST collections per month and annual. Details of monthly IGST settlement between the centre and states may also be disseminated, the sources added.