The finance ministry on Thursday said 67.45 lakh businesses filed GST returns in October and deposited Rs 1,00,710 crore as taxes.

New Delhi: In a relief to the government,  GST collections in October crossed Rs 1 lakh crore mark after a gap of 5 months on the back of festive demand.

This will be a relief to the government which is struggling to stick to the fiscal deficit target.  

“GST collections for October 2018 have crossed Rs 1 lakh crore. The success of GST is lower rates, lesser evasion, higher compliance, only one tax and negligible interference by taxation authorities,” finance minister Arun Jaitley said.

The finance ministry on Thursday said 67.45 lakh businesses filed GST returns in October and deposited Rs 1,00,710 crore as taxes.

The states which achieved “extra-ordinary growth” in total taxes collected include Kerala (44 per cent), Jharkhand (20 per cent), Rajasthan (14 per cent), Uttarakhand (13 per cent) and Maharashtra (11 per cent), an official statement said.

GST revenue had first crossed the landmark figure in April when the collections were Rs 1,03,458 crore.

Since then collections have maintained above Rs 90,000 crore mark. The mop up stood at Rs 94,016 crore in May, Rs 95,610 crore in June, Rs 96,483 crore in July, Rs 93,960 crore in August and Rs 94,442 crore in September.

Of the Rs 1 lakh crore total gross GST revenue collected in October, central GST is Rs 16,464 crore, state GST is Rs 22,826 crore, IGST is Rs 53,419 crore (including Rs 26,908 crore collected on imports) and cess is Rs 8,000 crore.  The October revenue collections reflect the purchase and sales activities conducted in the month of September.