Collection from Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the month of January crossed ₹ 1 lakh crore. This is the third time since the introduction of new indirect tax regime when mobilisation topped ₹ 1 lakh crore.

“The total Gross GST Revenue collected in the month of January 2019 has crossed ₹ 1 lakh crore. This has been a significant improvement over collection of ₹ 94,725 crore during last month and ₹ 89,825 crore during the same month last year,” the Finance Ministry said in a tweet on Thursday. 

It also said that this increase has been achieved despite various Tax Relief measures implemented by the GST Council to lower the tax burden on the consumers. Final figures and details of collections for the entire month will be released on February 2, 2019.

Saloni Roy, Senior Director at Deloitte India said that tax collections could be said to mirror the economy and healthier tax revenue in January definitely is an upbeat signal of the economy. “This trend of significant improvement in revenue collections should be maintained so that deficits are contained and there is stability in tax collections,” she said.

Pratik Jain, Partner & Leader (Indirect Tax) at PwC India felt that exceeding 1 lac crore mark for the third time this fiscal comes as a welcome relief for the Government, particularly after some dip in the last month. This again underlines that collections are increasing steadily as compliances are getting simplified, rates are getting reduced and administration is getting sharper. “That said, it's clear that overall collection for the entire year would be significantly lower than what was budgeted. It will be interesting to see whether the estimated collections in the next financial year would reflect the collection trend in the current year,” he said.