Higher demand during the festival months and greater compliance pushed GST collections up to Rs 1.31 lakh crore in November, the second highest since its implementation more than four years ago.

Revenues from central GST stood at Rs 23,978 crore for the month, state GST was Rs 31,127 crore and integrated GST Rs 66,815 crore. Cess collection was Rs 9,606 crore. Revenues for November 2021 are 25 per cent higher than November 2020 and 27 per cent higher over November 2019.

“These GST collections are somewhat lower than what we had expected, even as the year-on-year expansion is robust. We were hopeful that the GST collections in November would exceed the prevailing highest collections recorded in April 2021, given the all-time high generation of e-way bills during October,” Aditi Nayar, chief economist at Icra, said.

She said GST collections may dip in December as daily average e-way bill generation in the first three weeks of November reflect a deceleration.

Deloitte India partner M.S. Mani said: “A significant increase in the GST surveillance activities in recent times would have also contributed to the increased collections even as economic growth played a part.”

Vivek Jalan, partner, Tax Connect Advisory Services, said the spurt in collection is mainly a result of DGARM, which is the Data Analytics wing of the GST Council.

“Changes in the GST machinery provisions such as blocking of GSTR-1 and waybills when even one GST return is not filed within time have ensured greater compliance.”

Jalan said the increase in rates on items such as solar panels, textiles, footwear has paved the way for higher collections in the future.