The February GST mop-up shows an impressive year-on-year rise of 8.1%, with gross collections touching about ₹1.83 lakh crore. Yet, a critical vulnerability has been largely overlooked — the not-so-trivial import IGST numbers, which saw a spike of over 17% this February compared with last year. This must be viewed from a holistic perspective to understand how it affects consumption, prices and the growing disparity in GST collections between States. Import IGST collections in February rose to roughly ₹47,800 crore, up from about ₹40,800 crore a year ago. Higher input costs could nullify GST rationalisation price relief, leading to higher costs for consumers.

Source: The Hindu March 03, 2026 02:58 UTC