The Finance Ministry has said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections in October 2018 crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark, after a gap of 5 months, on the back of festive demand, anti-evasion measures. The Ministry has said the total gross GST revenue collected in October 2018 was Rs 1,00,710 crore. Of the Rs 1 lakh crore total gross GST revenue collected in October, central GST was Rs 16,464 crore, state GST was Rs 22,826 crore, IGST was Rs 53,419 crore (including Rs 26,908 crore collected on imports) and cess was Rs 8,000 crore.
The Ministry further said 67.45 lakh businesses filed GST returns in October. The states which achieved ‘extra-ordinary growth’ in total taxes collected include Kerala (44%), Jharkhand (20%), Rajasthan (14%), Uttarakhand (13%) and Maharashtra (11%). Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated that revenue collection under GST has grown on account of lower rates, lesser evasion, higher compliance, only one tax and negligible interference by taxation authorities.
Besides, GST revenue had first crossed the landmark figure in April when the collections were Rs 1,03,458 crore. Since then collections have maintained above Rs 90,000 crore mark. The collections stood at Rs 94,016 crore in May, Rs 95,610 crore in June, Rs 96,483 crore in July, Rs 93,960 crore in August and Rs 94,442 crore in September.