Datanomics: Major tax receipts rose, but total mopup fell 2% in April
No major central taxes — be it personal income tax, corporation tax, Customs duty, excise duty or central goods and services tax (CGST) — fell in April this year compared to those in April 2025. Even then, tax collections, pre-devolution to the states, declined by 1.9 per cent to Rs.2.66 trillion. Sample this: Corporation tax receipts rose 17.4 per cent to Rs.25,194 crore, personal income tax increased 6.8 per cent to Rs.1.17 trillion, CGST was up 37.7 per cent to Rs.1.07 trillion, and Customs duty rose 25 per cent to Rs.17,424 crore. Similarly Union excise duty increased to Rs.447 crore against a negative balance of Rs.39 crore. Even securities transaction tax (STT) rose 8.4 per cent to Rs.4,105 crore despite volatile stock markets.
Then what caused total tax collections to fall year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in April? It is integrated GST and GST compensation cess. While IGST stood at negative Rs.6,841 crore in April this year against Rs.31,097 crore in April 2025, GST compensation cess was negative Rs.187 crore against Rs.12,696 crore. This is the third time in the past 10 years that overall central tax receipts fell Y-o-Y in April.
