The highest ever GST collection was in April 2022 when revenue receipts stood at ₹1.68 trillion.

In January, after settlement for inter-state sales, the total revenue of the Centre was at ₹67,470 crore and of states was at ₹69,354 crore, the ministry said.

Receipts from GST cess stood at ₹10,630 crore (including ₹768 crore collected on import of goods)," the Ministry of Finance said in a statement. The revenues in the current financial year upto the month of January 2023 are 24% higher than the GST revenues during the same period last year.

In December 2022, 8.3 crore e-way bills were generated, which was significantly higher than the 7.9 crore e-way bills generated in November 2022, a trend that pointed to robust revenue collections in January. E-way bills are needed for high value shipment of goods within and across states and is taken as a high frequency indicator of economic activity by analysts.

"Over the last year, various efforts have been made to increase the tax base and improve compliance. The percentage of filing of GST returns (GSTR-3B) and of the statement of invoices (GSTR-1), till the end of the month, has improved significantly over years," the ministry said.

The high number of e-way bills in December clearly indicates an uptick in economic activity, said Abhishek Jain, Partner, Indirect Tax at KPMG in India. "With the economic survey 22-23 indicating that the taxpayer numbers have almost doubled from the initial 2017 numbers, it seems that such high GST collections can be expected to be normal for the coming months," said Jain. (ends)