New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections rose by 6.5 per cent to Rs 1.86 lakh in August, government data released on Monday showed.

GST collections have been rising steadily to remain above the Rs 1.8 lakh crore mark for the eighth month in a row, reflecting the growing economic activity in the country.

The gross domestic revenue grew 9.6 per cent to Rs 1.37 lakh crore, while tax from imports dipped 1.2 per cent to Rs 49,354 crore in August. GST refunds were down 20 per cent year-on-year to Rs 19,359 crore.

Net GST revenue stood at Rs 1.67 lakh crore in August 2025, recording 10.7 per cent year-on-year growth.

The data has been released just ahead of the meeting of the GST Council, comprising the Centre and states, which will deliberate on introducing a two-slab GST rate of 5 and 18 per cent on most goods, while a separate higher 40 per cent tax will be levied on sin goods such as cigarettes, tobacco, and sugary drinks as part of the rationalisation exercise.

Buoyant tax collections in recent months have helped to strengthen the country’s fiscal position and the macroeconomic fundamentals, which help to ensure stable growth.

Meanwhile, global investment bank and financial advisory firm Morgan Stanley has raised its forecast for India’s GDP growth in 2025-26 on the back of the robust 7.8 per cent growth in the April-June quarter and expects the forthcoming cuts in GST to spur domestic demand, which would offset the decline in exports due to the US tariff hike.

“We expect impending GST tax cuts, the upcoming festive season and strong trends in rural demand to provide a fillip to domestic demand. As such, we expect the composition of growth to change with public spending softening, external demand weakening (mainly goods exports) and private sector demand picking up,” it said in a report.

“We estimate that the incremental drag from external demand at around 50 basis points (bps) could potentially be offset from likely GST cuts, which could boost growth by about 50bps,” it observed.

For the financial year 2025-26, Morgan Stanley has revised its real GDP growth upwards to 6.7 per cent year-on-year from 6.2 per cent projected earlier.

–IANS

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