The higher revenue collection is a shot in the arm for government's finances that had taken a hit due to pandemic and has seen significant improvement in the second quarter of the current fiscal.

The government has collected Rs 1,17,010 crore GST for the month of September which is 23% higher than the same period last year.

The higher revenue collection is a shot in the arm for government's finances that had taken a hit due to pandemic and has seen significant improvement in the second quarter of the current fiscal.

"The average monthly gross GST collection for the second quarter of the current year has been Rs 1.15 lakh crore, which is 5% higher than the average monthly collection of Rs 1.10 lakh crore in the first quarter of the year," government said.

The improvement in tax collection helped the government in narrowing its budget deficit gap which came in at 31% of the yearly target for the period April-August.

The pick up in economic activity over the coming months when consumer spending is set to increase due to festival season will further improve the GST collections.

"The gross GST revenue collected in the month of September 2021 is Rs 1,17,010 crore of which CGST is Rs 20,578 crore, SGST is Rs 26,767 crore, IGST is Rs 60,911 crore (including Rs 29,555 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is Rs 8,754 crore (including ? 623 crore collected on import of goods)," the official release said.