Business

The Ministry of Finance announced the monthly collections of the goods and services tax ahead of the Union Budget on Wednesday.

The gross GST collected in January for transactions in December stood at Rs 1.55 lakh crore, rising from the previous month’s tally of Rs 1.49 lakh crore.

GST data is released with a month’s lag and pertains to transactions that took place in the preceding month.

Trends indicate that the last quarter usually registers increased collections. Monthly collections have continued to remain upwards of Rs 1.4 lakh crore since March 2022. The recent collections are higher than October’s collections and the April figures, making it the second highest collection ever.

Collections hovered around the Rs 1.5 lakh crore mark last month as well, missing the mark by a small margin.

Experts said that this was aided by manufacturing and consumption stability across states, and highlighted robust economic performance across key sectors.

January’s collection is 24% higher than the corresponding period last year. During the month, revenues from import of goods were 29% higher and revenue from domestic transactions, including import of services, were 22% higher than revenue from these sources during the same month last year.

E-way bills picked up during the month to 8.3 crore, which is the highest so far, up from 7.9 crore in the previous month.

The government’s budget estimates pegged the indirect tax target at Rs 13.30 lakh crore. Revised estimates for the fiscal will be revealed along with the country’s financial outlay for the next financial year in the budget.

The total tax target for the fiscal currently stands at Rs 27.50 lakh crore.

Break-Up Of GST Collections (as on 5 p.m. on Jan. 31)

• Gross GST revenue: Rs 1,55,922 crore.
• Central GST: Rs 28,963 crore.
• State GST: Rs 36,730 crore.
• Integrated GST: Rs 79,599 crore (including Rs 37,118 crore collected on import of goods).
• Cess: Rs 10,630 crore (including Rs 768 crore collected on import of goods).

The ministry credited the healthy collections to various policy changes introduced during the course of the year to improve compliance.

“The percentage of filing of GST returns (GSTR-3B) and of the statement of invoices (GSTR-1) till the end of the month, has improved significantly over years,” according to a release.

In the October–December quarter, a total of 2.42 crore GST returns were filed till end of next month as compared to 2.19 crore in the same quarter in the last year.

The Israel government handed over the Haifa Port to Adani Enterprises Ltd. and its joint venture partner Gadot Group on Tuesday, finalising the ambitious acquisition for the ports-to-transmission conglomerate.

Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed the port book at the event to mark the handover in Haifa.

Adani exuded confidence that the group would transform the entire port landscape with support from Israel, the local authorities, and joint venture partner Gadot.

“We realise that there will be competition from others, but our confidence comes from our belief in the people of Israel and, therefore, our belief in the Israel growth story,” he said.

“The acquisition of the Haifa port also comes with a significant amount of real estate. And I promise you that in the years to come, we will transform the skyline we see around us. The Haifa of tomorrow will look very different from the Haifa that you see today. With your support, we will deliver on this commitment and do our part to transform this city,” the Adani Group founder said.

Talking about Adani Group’s future plans for Israel, he said the company would set up an artificial intelligence lab in Tel Aviv and it will work in close collaboration with its new AI labs in India and the U.S.

Laurus Labs Ltd. isn’t likely to witness a bump-up in revenue in the fourth quarter of the fiscal, according to its Chief Executive Officer Satyanarayana Chava.

The situation with the environment is challenging with respect to orders, antiretroviral drugs and formulation non-ARVs, Chava said.

Fiscal 2024 will be a year of consolidation and the subsequent fiscal will again be a growth year, Chava, who is also the founder of Laurus Labs, told BQ Prime’s Niraj Shah.

The pharma and biotech company’s third quarter revenue rose 50% to Rs 1,545 crore year-on-year, while net profit was up 32% to Rs 203 crore.

The Hyderabad-based firm said that in the next fiscal, it has a “lot of capacity” coming online—both active pharmaceutical ingredient and formulations, as well as contract development and manufacturing organisation.

The company’s operating margin stood at 26.1%, down from 27.7% a year ago.

“Since we have a lot of qualified capacities in APIs and formulations, a lot of operational deleveraging is happening,” Chava said. “We expense all pre-operative expenditures and we don’t capitalise. So, that was the one hit to Ebitda.”

The company doesn’t have “big concerns” for the margin front in the next fiscal, he said.