New Delhi: Goods and Services (GST) collection in November dropped to Rs 97,637 crore, lower than Rs 1 lakh crore collected previous month. The total number of GSTR 3B returns filed for October up to November 30, 2018, is 69.6 lakh, the finance ministry said in a statement. Compensation released to states for August-September stood at Rs 11,922 crore.

Of the Rs 97,637 crore collected, central GST (CGST) collection is Rs 16,812 crore, state GST (SGST) is Rs 23,070 crore, integrated GST (IGST) is Rs 49,726 crore (including Rs 24,133 crore collected on imports) and cess is Rs 8,031 crore (including Rs 842 crore collected on imports).

The government has settled Rs 18,262 crore to CGST and Rs 15,704 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement.

The total revenue earned by central government and the state governments after regular settlement in November 2018 is Rs 35,073 crore for CGST and Rs 38,774 crore for SGST, the ministry added.

The GST collections stood at Rs 1.03 lakh crore in April, Rs 94,016 crore in May, Rs 95,610 crore in June, Rs 96,483 crore in July, Rs 93,960 crore in August, Rs 94,442 crore in September and Rs 1,00,710 crore in October.

Commenting of the number, EY Tax Partner Abhishek Jain said, While the GST collections have shrinked vis-a-vis the earlier month, it is higher than the average monthly collection in the year. This steady increase in average collection brings a gleam of hope for a regular monthly collection of Rs 1 lakh crore being met soon.