In a situation when GST collection has become a parameter of economic health of the country, a seven-month high recovery in November crossing the Rs 1-trillion gives a sigh of relief to the government. However, this rise is attributed to festive season demand and anti-evasion measures by the government but it is still short of its target that is around Rs 1.18 trillion.

The GST mop-up grew by 6 per cent in November over the corresponding period last year to Rs 1.03 trillion, against Rs 95,380 billion in October. These figures are for October, collected in November.

Although the collection figures come as a breather for the government, it is lower than the expected collection rate needed to meet the steep target for 2019-20 (FY20). Being a festival month, GST collection on domestic transactions witnessed a 12 per cent growth — the highest during the year. GST collection on imports continued to see negative growth of (-)13 per cent, against (-)20 per cent in October.

This is the eighth time since GST inception in July 2017 that the monthly collection has crossed the Rs 1-trillion-mark. Also, the November 2019 collection is the third-highest monthly collection since the introduction of GST, next only to April 2019 and March 2019 collections.