September GST collections rise 14.7 percent to 2.04 lakh crore, led by imports

India's gross goods and services tax collections in September rose 14.7 percent from a year earlier, to ₹2.04 lakh crore from ₹1.77 lakh crore. The finance ministry released the provisional figures on Thursday. More than half of the increase came from tax on imports, which jumped 25.9 percent. It is the third month of this financial year in which the gross take has crossed ₹2 lakh crore.

The import number is ₹65,525 crore, against ₹52,031 crore in September 2025. That is an extra ₹13,494 crore from the customs side alone. The ministry's monthly increase in gross collections was ₹26,156 crore, so the import slice is more than half of the gain. Net revenue from customs-related GST rose faster still, 30.8 percent, to ₹52,028 crore. Domestic gross collections were ₹1.38 lakh crore, up 10.1 percent from ₹1.25 lakh crore. The home market grew. The border grew more than twice as fast.

Refunds, the net, and the half year

Refunds fell 3 percent, to ₹27,001 crore from ₹27,848 crore. Because the government paid out slightly less while taking in more, net GST after refunds rose 18.1 percent, to ₹1.77 lakh crore. That net figure is the one that reaches the Centre and the states after exporters and inverted-duty claimants are paid. A falling refund bill alongside a rising gross is why the net growth outruns the headline 14.7 percent.

For the first six months of the year, gross collections stand at ₹12.46 lakh crore, up 11.6 percent from ₹11.17 lakh crore in the same half of 2025-26. September is therefore a little stronger than the half-year pace. It is not the peak. April 2026 holds the record at ₹2.43 lakh crore. July, at ₹2.11 lakh crore, is the second highest since GST began in July 2017. September at ₹2.04 lakh crore sits just under July.

What the import surge is made of

A Crisil Ratings note published on 22 September found that integrated GST on imports grew nearly 30 percent in the five months through August, helped by electronics, machinery, gold, fertiliser and other goods. September's 25.9 percent rise fits that run. It is not a one-month spike. Gold and electronics are the lines that move the customs-GST number when domestic consumption is only middling, and both have been strong this year. Fertiliser imports add a seasonal piece ahead of the rabi sowing window.

The split matters for anyone reading the 14.7 percent as a demand story. Domestic GST at 10.1 percent is the closer proxy for consumption and for formal business at home. Import GST at 25.9 percent is a proxy for the border, including gold that is stored rather than consumed, and machinery that is investment rather than a shop receipt. Mixing them into one growth rate overstates the pace of the home economy. The half-year gross of 11.6 percent, with imports doing a large share of the work, is the figure to set next to the corporate tax and income tax numbers when the government closes the mid-year accounts.

The data are provisional. A revision next month can move a line by a few hundred crore, not by the ₹13,494 crore import gap. That gap is the September story: a third month above ₹2 lakh crore, and an increase that the ports produced more of than the shops.