“The Gross domestic GST collections for the month of November 2025 (which pertain to supplies made in the month of October, 2025) have shown a decline of 2.3% compared with the same numbers for the month of November 2024. This data is for the first full month after the GST rate reduction. This drop is clearly due to the effect of GST rate reductions coming into effect from 22 September 2025. It was hoped that the increase in volume of purchases due to increased affordability from the rate reduction, that too, in the festive period of Diwali which traditionally sees significantly high demand, would offset the drop in revenue due to GST rate reductions, but instead, there is a reduction in the Gross domestic GST Collections.
Also, while previously the compensation cess collection was also included in the GST collection data, present data has treated cess separately, and if the cess is also considered as a part of Gross domestic GST Collection, the numbers would show a further dip, since the cess collection has reduced by two-thirds, mainly due to only tobacco now being subject to the cess and other items like aerated beverages and motor vehicles going outside the ambit of cess.
While the net GST collections on an overall basis, excluding cess, have shown a minor increase of 1.3% (net decrease if the cess is also considered) due to significant increase in IGST collections on imports as well as some dip in the amount of refunds, it would now be interesting to see the GST collections for the next few months to see the level at which the collection numbers stabilise after the rate reductions.”
