Chandigarh's GST kitty grows 7% in June, but collections swing sharply through the quarter

Chandigarh’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections rose 7 per cent year-on-year in June 2026, touching Rs 229 crore against Rs 215 crore in June last year, according to provisional data released by the Union Finance Ministry on Wednesday. The Union Territory’s growth rate for the month matched the national average, which also came in at 7 per cent for domestic GST revenue collected across states and UTs.

The June number caps a volatile first quarter of the financial year for the city, whose GST take moved from Rs 306 crore in April to Rs 373 crore in May before falling back to Rs 229 crore in June, a pattern more pronounced than the swings seen in most other states.

Ministry data, a copy of which is with The Tribune, shows Chandigarh’s month-on-month GST revenue fell nearly 39 per cent between May and June, even as the year-on-year comparison stayed positive. April had opened the fiscal year on a weak note, with collections down 7.8 per cent from the same month in 2025, largely a reflection of high year-ago base effects tied to year-end return filings. May reversed that trend sharply, with collections up 3 per cent on the year, before June’s more modest but still positive 7 per cent growth.

Taken together, Chandigarh’s cumulative domestic GST collection for April-June 2026 stood at Rs 908 crore (Rs 306 crore + Rs 373 crore + Rs 229 crore), against roughly Rs 887 crore over the same three months last year, a first-quarter gain of about 2-3 per cent, trailing the pace seen in several larger neighbouring states.

How Chandigarh compares

Among Union Territories, Chandigarh’s June performance sat in the middle of the pack. Andaman & Nicobar Islands (+53 per cent) and Lakshadweep (+59 per cent) posted the sharpest gains, though both are calculated off very small bases. Chandigarh’s 7% growth outpaced Jammu & Kashmir (-15 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (-26 per cent), Puducherry (-28 per cent), Ladakh (-7 per cent) and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu (-2 per cent), but lagged Punjab’s 14 per cent and the 9 per cent and 8 per cent growth clocked by neighbouring Haryana and Delhi, respectively.

Against the national picture, Chandigarh tracked almost exactly with the country as a whole. Gross domestic GST revenue nationally grew 2.8 per cent in June, while total gross GST revenue (including imports) rose 13.9 per cent and net revenue after refunds was up 11.2 per cent. On the state-wise domestic-only growth measure, the metric used to compare Chandigarh’s own 7 per cent figure, the national grand total also grew 7 per cent, putting the city precisely in line with the countrywide trend even as many of its immediate neighbours diverged sharply in either direction.

SGST settlement tells stronger story

A more encouraging signal for the UT’s finances comes from the SGST settlement numbers, which capture what actually flows into Chandigarh’s account after inter-governmental adjustment of IGST. Pre-settlement SGST collected in Chandigarh rose 9 per cent in June to Rs 64 crore. But post-settlement SGST, which includes the city’s share of IGST distributed by the Centre, rose faster, up 11 per cent to Rs 205 crore for the month. Over the April-June quarter, the gap widened further: pre-settlement SGST grew just 3 per cent to Rs 204 crore, while post-settlement SGST jumped 29 per cent to Rs 713 crore, indicating Chandigarh has been a net beneficiary of the IGST settlement mechanism so far this fiscal year.

Taxpayer base holds steady

The number of registered GST taxpayers in Chandigarh stood at roughly 33,800 as of end-June, split between about 14,800 under central jurisdiction and 19,000 under the UT administration, a marginal increase from the count at the start of the quarter in April, suggesting the formal taxpayer base has been broadly stable rather than expanding rapidly.

The bigger picture

Nationally, total gross GST revenue for June 2026 came in at Rs 1,94,812 crore, up 13.9 per cent from Rs 1,71,105 crore a year earlier, driven substantially by a 34.6 per cent jump in import-linked IGST. Net revenue after refunds rose 11.2 per cent to Rs 1,62,377 crore. The Finance Ministry noted the figures remain provisional and may be revised on finalisation.

For Chandigarh, the headline takeaway is one of steady, if unspectacular, alignment with the national trend, a city whose tax collections neither led nor lagged the country in June, even as the path to get there over April, May and June was considerably bumpier than the year-on-year numbers alone suggest.