GST Collection Above Rs 1 Lakh Crore For Seventh Consecutive Month

The government's goods and services tax stayed above Rs 1 lakh crore for the seventh straight month.

The GST collections for December, (collected in January) till 3 p.m. on Monday stood at 1,38,394 crore, according to a Finance Ministry statement. That's a 15% increase from the preceding month and a 25% rise year-on-year.

The statement attributed the trend to a 26% year-on-year increase in import of goods and revenues from domestic transactions, including import of services, which rose to 12% over the preceding year.

The Finance Minister in her budget speech stated that the total GST collection for the month of January stood at Rs 1,40,986 crore.

Breakup of GST collections for January:

• Central GST: Rs 24,674 crore.

• State GST: Rs 32,016 crore.

• IGST: Rs 72,030 crore, including Rs 35,181 crore collected on import of goods.

• Cess: Rs 9,674 crore, including Rs 517 crore collected on import of goods.

E-way bills generated in December stood at 6.7 crore, a 14% month-on-month rise.

"Coupled with economic recovery, anti-evasion activities, especially action against fake billers have been contributing to the enhanced GST," the statement said. "It's expected that the positive trend in the revenues will continue in the coming months as well."

The Economic Survey released earlier on Monday said the revival in revenues will provide the government with fiscal space to ramp up capital expenditure.