The goods and services tax (GST) collections in October climbed to at Rs 1.72 lakh crore, the second highest-ever, according to the finance ministry on Wednesday. The GST collections are 13 per cent higher than the Rs 1.52 lakh crore collected in October in the year-ago period.


Finance ministry in a statement said, "GST revenue collection for October 2023 is second highest ever, next only to April 2023, at Rs 1.72 lakh crore; records increase of 13 per cent YoY." The highest-ever revenue to date from GST was recorded in April 2023 at Rs 1.87 lakh crore.


The average gross monthly GST collection in the FY23-24 now stands at Rs 1.66 lakh crore, 11 per cent higher than the year-ago period. 


The average gross monthly GST collection in the current fiscal has also shown an 11 per cent growth year-on-year at Rs 1.66 lakh crore.


Aditi Nayar, chief economist, ICRA, said GST collections benefited from quarter-end adjustments related to transactions in the previous month and the overall momentum in the economy. "With this, the pace of YoY growth jumped to a 10-month high in October 2023, which is encouraging. At present, we project the CGST collections to mildly exceed the FY24 BE," Nayar told PTI.


During October, revenue from domestic transactions was 13 per cent higher year-on-year. The gross GST revenue collected in October 2023 is Rs 1,72,003 crore, out of which Rs 30,062 crore is Central GST, Rs 38,171 crore is State GST, Rs 91,315 crore (including Rs 42,127 crore collected on import of goods) is Integrated GST, and Rs 12,456 crore (including Rs 1,294 crore collected on import of goods) is cess.


The government has settled Rs 42,873 crore to CGST and Rs 36,614 crore to SGST from IGST. The total revenue of the Centre and states in October after regular settlement is Rs 72,934 crore for CGST and Rs 74,785 crore for SGST.


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