Gross and Net GST revenue collections for the month of May, 2026
Centre and states together collected gross goods and services tax (GST) of ₹1.94 trillion (before adjusting for refunds) in May 2026, as per data put out by the Ministry of Finance on Monday.
Total gross GST collection by Centre and States in May 2026 stands at Rs 1.94 trillion growing by 3.2% from gross collection of Rs 1.88 trillion in May 2025. Growth in GST collection by States has been phenomenal with Uttar Pradesh leading the chart with growth of 13% in May 2026.
The growth rate for gross collection will be approximately 9% after adjusting for the one-off GST payment of approximately ₹10,000 crores by a telecom operator for the spectrum allocation in May 2025. The growth in GST collection has decelerated compared to April 2026 when the collections had touched an all-time high of ₹2.43 trillion for the gross collection. This decline in growth rate is expected as April collection itself is a function of the preceding March collection and therefore all time high for the month of April. Also, March is end of financial year and hence there is large number of transactions for closure of accounts and payment of year-end taxes.
Compared with April, when GST collection touched an all-time high of ₹2.43 trillion or $30 billion in the first month of FY’27, the revenue in May has come down by about ₹43,000 crore or 18.1%. This would be appropriate to compare with April numbers, as the collections in both the months reflect activity of preceding month-end. It is a known fact that businesses rush into sales in March-end to clear old stocks, complete their annual accounts and also pay year-end taxes.
Import related GST revenues grew 19.1% YoY to ₹59,654 crores in May whereas corresponding Gross Domestic GST revenues contracted 2.6% YoY to ₹1,34,066 crores.
This strong growth in GST collections is likely to reinforce the Finance Ministry’s view of economy performing well even as global uncertainty is rising. Finance Ministry in its monthly economic review published last week pointed to strong performance of high frequency indicators including e-way bills, manufacturing and services PMI and electricity generation etc.
“Growth in GST collections are best depicted by way of adjusted growth rates. In such computation, one-off occasion of Telecom spectrum payment having been received in May last year would remain excluded from the base.
“Broadly, the numbers align with the global and domestic news flow. The Import GST revenue grew by nearly 20% YoY and one would have to see it in context of rupee depreciating over the last year. If we exclude the impact of one time telecom spectrum payment of Rs 10,000 crores received in May last year, the growth in Domestic GST would be in line with overall economic growth and would be moderate,” said Abhishek Jain, indirect tax head & partner, KPMG.
Post refunds, the net GST collected in the month of May 2026 stands at ₹166,904 million which has recorded a growth of 3.3% over corresponding month of prior year. Excluding impact of one time GST payment of ₹10,000 crores made by a telecom operator in May 2025 for spectrum allocation, the net growth would be 10.1%.