Finance Minister Arun Jaitley confirmed on Thursday that the goods and services tax (GST) collection, which was Rs 94,442 crore in September has crossed the massive Rs 1 lakh crore mark for the month of October 2018.
GST collection had crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark for the first time in April, which had then stood at Rs 1,03,458 crore, but since then it has remained above the Rs 90,000 crore level until October 2018.
The finance minister has shared this information on Twitter.
GST collections for October 2018 have crossed Rs. 1 lakh crore. The success of GST is lower rates, lesser evasion, higher compliance, only one tax and negligible interference by taxation authorities.
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) November 1, 2018
He furthered that, 67.45 lakh businesses filed goods and services tax (GST) returns in October and deposited Rs 1,00,710 crore as taxes.
The Finance Ministry had targeted monthly GST collections to be Rs 1 lakh crore for this fiscal. The collections, however, stood at Rs 94,016 crore in May, Rs 95610 crore in June, Rs 96,483 crore in July, Rs 93,960 in August and Rs 94,442 crore in September.
The states which contributed the most to the buildup in total taxes collected include Kerala (44 percent), Jharkhand (20 percent), Rajasthan (14 percent), Uttarakhand (13 percent) and Maharashtra (11 percent), an official statement said.
Of the Rs 1 lakh crore total gross GST revenue collected in October, central GST is Rs 16,464 crore, state GST is Rs 22,826 crore, IGST is Rs 53,419 crore (including Rs 26,908 crore collected on imports) and cess is Rs. 8,000 crore.
The BJP government’s effort to subsume indirect taxes under a single comprehensive tax was implemented last year on July 1.
Union Minister Ramdas Athawale had also confirmed earlier this week that the Modi government was contemplating bringing petrol and diesel under the ambit of GST.
“If petrol and diesel are brought under GST, it will help bring down their prices by Rs 20-30, which will provide relief to people of this country including the middle class and common masses,” Athawale had said.
