The Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections for January crossed Rs 1 lakh crore. This came a day before finance minister Piyush Goyal presenting the government's Budget in Parliament.
"The total gross GST revenue collected in the month of January has today crossed Rs 1 lakh crore. This has been a significant improvement over collection of Rs 94,725 crore during last month and Rs 89,825 crore during the same month last year," the finance ministry said in a statement.
The final figures and details of collections for the entire month will be released on February 2. The GST collection data is normally released on 1st of every month.
The government said the increase has been achieved despite various tax relief measures implemented by the GST Council to lower the burden on the consumers. The government had earlier this month ruled out any further cuts in GST rates until revenue collections improve.
After the GST Council reduced the tax rates on 23 items effective January 1, the expectation was that the GST revenues would see more pressure.
GST collections stood at Rs 1.03 lakh crore in April, Rs 94,016 crore in May, Rs 95,610 crore in June, Rs 96,483 crore in July, Rs 93,960 crore in August, Rs 94,442 crore in September, Rs 1 lakh crore in October, Rs 97,637 crore in November and Rs 94,725 crore in December.
"Crossing the Rs 1 lakh crore figure in GST collections a day ahead of the Union Budget would provide some confidence in being able to move closer to the revenue targets," said M S Mani, senior director, Deloitte India.
"The collection figures are impressive as they come on the back of rate reductions; if the same pace is maintained, the revenue targets would be close to being achieved. These numbers indicate that rate reductions result in increased revenues and compliance. We are moving closer to the targeted GST collections for the fiscal," he added.
