GST collections in Goa shrink 2.1% as state’s share remains flat

Panaji: The GST revenue data for 2025-26 shows that while the state’s taxpayer base is expanding, Goa is seeing a significant loss of fiscal momentum. The total GST collected in Goa for 2025-26 came in at Rs 6,950 crore, representing an overall decline of 2.1% over the previous year at a time when national GST collections grew 6.4%.

Of the Rs 6,950 crore collected as GST from taxpayers, Goa govt earned Rs 4,575 crore for the year ending March 31, a flat 1% growth. The remaining GST was credited to Centre’s treasury. Data released by the Union finance ministry shows that the contraction in GST collections is not uniform. Central tax formations in Goa recorded a sharper decline of 6.1%, while state formations managed a marginal 0.7% uptick, barely enough to soften the overall fall in revenue.

The revenue mop-up in March offered a small consolation. State govt earned Rs 396 crore post-settlement, as compared to Rs 378 crore in March 2025. However, a single month’s uptick, driven by revenues from the peak tourism season, is insufficient to offset the trend that played out across the full year.

After years of maintaining near double-digit growth, the state’s total GST revenue has begun to contract, if one accounts for the 4.4% inflation rate that Goa recorded in the April-Dec period of 2025-26.

This suggests that the volume and value of taxable transactions are shrinking in real terms.

The state’s combined IGST and SGST collections surged from Rs 1,985 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 4,424 crore in 2024-25. From a 28% GST revenue growth in 2022-23, a 15% growth in 2023-24 and a nine per cent growth in 2024-25, Goa’s GST earnings for 2025-26 have dropped to one per cent.

Authorities attribute the sharp decline to the complete phasing out of GST compensation, which stood at Rs 1,651 crore during the Covid-19 pandemic years. The state received its final compensation adjustment of Rs 164 crore in 2024-25, bringing the compensation period that began in July 2017 to a close.

Since then, Goa has expanded its economy to register 49,597 commercial taxpayers as of March 31.

The most critical insight for policymakers is the gap between Goa’s 2.1% GST revenue decline and the national average growth of 6.4%.

This means Goa is being squeezed from both ends simultaneously, its own collections are declining, and its share of the redistributed IGST pool is growing at a fraction of the national pace.