GST collections at Rs 95,131 crore in October

The revenue collected under the goods and services tax (GST) in October stood at Rs95,131 crore against Rs93,141 crore collected in September, rising by a modest 2.1 per cent.

The slight upswing in GST collections has helped bridge the average revenue shortfall of states to 17.6 per cent, Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi has said.

Modi, who heads the group of ministers (GoM) on GST Network, said the average revenue shortfall of all states for August was 28.4 per cent and it has come down to 17.6 per cent in October.

''This is a good indication. It shows the system is slowly stabilising,'' he told reporters here after a meeting of the GoM.

In rupee terms, the revenue shortfall of all states has come down from Rs12,208 crore in August to Rs7,560 crore in October, he said.

According to finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia, tax collection would stabilise around budgeted figures. He pointed out that almost all pending tax returns for July have been filed.

''The numbers for August are closing in and now September too has turned every encouraging.'' The government had given extra time to businesses for filing their tax returns so that they could become conversant with the requirements. As a result, the pace of filing returns had slowed considerably.