New Delhi: Gross Goods & Services Tax (GST) collections at ₹1.94 lakh crore in May 2026 rose 3.2% Y-O-Y from ₹1.88 lakh crore during May 2025. Collections continued to be strong while the growth rate also seemed to be easing from the record GST collections of ₹2.43 lakh crore in April.
As per official data, Gross GST collected in May was ₹1,94,184crore. The net collection of GST revenues from this quarter is at ₹1,66,904 crore, which has increased by 3.3% compared to the corresponding quarter last year, after making adjustments for refunds. The total refunds issued during the month were ₹27,281 crore which was 2.6% higher than the previous year.
According to a detailed break-up of the collections of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in May, Integrated GST (IGST), SGST and CGST have contributed the highest share of ₹1,11,644 crore, ₹45,143 crore and ₹37,397 crore, respectively. The figures indicate that interstate trade and imports continued to play a major role in overall tax collections.
The highlight of the May data was the robust import GST revenue growth. GST collections from imports jumped 19.1% year-on-year to ₹59,654 crore. On the other hand, collections of domestic GST fell by 2.6 percent to ₹1,34,530 crore. This implies that much of the increase in tax revenues was due to foreign demand surging to a greater extent than domestic demand.
Experts say the GST collections were supported in the month by the surge in imports of industrial raw materials, energy products and intermediate goods. The bulk of the rise in import earnings had been associated with materials for industrial consumption which support the manufacturing and production process in India.
The May figures also reflect economic activity in April when global commodity markets continued to be volatile and geopolitical uncertainty prevailed. The factors affected the business sentiment, trade flows and import prices in multiple industries. However, this was despite the difficulties, with GST collections settling in the near ₹2,00,000 crore range, which suggests the economic activity’s relative strength.
However, economists are closely watching the slowdown in growth. GST collections had grown 8.7% year-on-year in April 2026 and 16.4% in May 2025. The new 3.2% growth rate is a drop from those numbers; indicating perhaps an economic cooling down. For some analysts this is a sign of diminishing consumption and modest growth in domestic transactions.
Overall, however, the fiscal landscape is still favorable. Gross GST collections during the first two months of FY26-27 were at ₹4.37 lakh crore, which is 6.2% up from the gross collections of the previous year. This means that tax revenue remains taxing, despite better compliance, the use of digital monitoring and the ongoing shift of the informal economy to the formal one.
