Revenue collections from the goods and services tax (GST) stood at Rs 1.29 trillion in December, slightly lower than the amount garnered in November.

The Modi government, however, believes that it has good reason to feel chuffed over the development: it is the sixth month in a row that GST revenues have topped Rs 1 trillion. The gross GST collection in November stood at Rs 1.31 trillion, which was the second highest collections since the introduction of GST in July 2017.

The revenue collected in December was 13 per cent higher than the same month last year, the Union finance ministry said while expressing the hope that the positive trend would continue in the last quarter as well.

Aditi Nayar, chief economist at ICRA, said: “The GST collections for December 2021 are certainly impressive in absolute terms as well as the year-on-year growth, given the sequential drop in GST e-way bills that had been seen during the festive month of November 2021. This performance can be attributed both to anti-evasion activities as well as the sharp growth in revenue from imports.”

M.S. Mani, partner at Deloitte India, said: “The GST collections are high despite a reduction in the e-way bill generation during the same period, possibly a higher collection from the services sector accompanied by a continuing focus on implementation of technology-based anti-evasion measures.”