india

Updated: Feb 01, 2020 01:38 IST

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in January 2020 is set to cross Rs 1.1 lakh crore, the second highest since the launch of the new indirect tax regime in July 2017, two persons aware of the development said requesting anonymity. The highest GST collection of Rs 1.13 lakh crore was recorded in April 2019.

January will be the third consecutive months when GST collections will cross Rs1 lakh crore benchmark. However, the collection this month will be marginally lower than the revised target of Rs 1.15 lakh crore, they said.

A finance ministry spokesperson declined to comment on this matter saying that the final collection figure will be available only after the midnight. The government is expected to release the numbers on Saturday.

Earlier this month, at a high-level meeting, the Department of Revenue had raised the GST collection target to Rs 1.15 lakh crore for January and February 2020 and Rs 1.25 lakh crore for March 2020, the last month of the current financial year “with specific focus on stopping fraudulent input tax credit (ITC) claims”, a second official said.

Initially, the government had a target to achieve an average Rs 1 lakh crore per month, but the bar has been raised after the GST revenue slumped below Rs 1 lakh crore for three consecutive months – August (Rs 98,202 crore), September (Rs 91,916 crore) and October (Rs 95,380). The indirect tax collection, which is a tax on consumption, bounced back to the Rs 1 lakh mark again from November (Rs 1.03 crore) and maintained almost the same level in the following month.