Due to stronger anti-evasion measures and higher compliance, India's GST collections increased 13% year on year to Rs 1.72 trillion in October.

This is the second-highest collection ever, trailing only April of this year, according to the Finance Ministry, which released monthly GST numbers on Wednesday. The average gross monthly GST collection in FY24 is now Rs 1.66 trillion, an 11% rise year on year, according to the ministry.

In September, central and state governments collected 1.62 trillion in goods and services tax (GST), the fourth biggest monthly collection since the commencement of the indirect tax regime and a 10% increase over the previous year.

"The significant growth in GST collections over recent months is not only due to strong underlying economic factors but also the efforts of tax authorities in using tools to compare data sets for identifying short payments and evasion," said MS Mani, a partner at Deloitte India

Of the overall gross collection of Rs 1.72 trillion, Rs 30,062 crore is Central GST, Rs 38,171 crore is State GST, Rs 91,315 crore is IGST (including Rs 42,127 crore collected on imports), and Rs 12,456 crore is cess.

From the Integrated GST, the government has allotted Rs 42,873 crore to CGST and Rs 36,614 crore to SGST. After regular settlement, the total income for the Centre and the states is Rs 72,934 crore for CGST and Rs 74,785 crore for SGST.

"Revenue from domestic transactions, including service imports, is also 13% higher than revenue from these sources during the same month last year." The increased emphasis on audits based on specific data from numerous databases, not only the GST portal, has resulted in a significant increase in compliance across sectors and states. This is also seen in the increase in GST collections in key manufacturing and consuming states," Mani stressed.