The finance ministry announced on Tuesday that GST collections for October reached Rs 1.52 lakh crore, the second highest collection since GST was implemented.

In April, GST collection reached a record high of nearly Rs 1.68 lakh crore. In September, it was Rs 1.48 lakh crore.

There were 1,51,718 crores of gross GST collected in October 2022, of which Rs 26,039 crore was collected by the central government and Rs 33,396 crore was collected by the state government, while the integrated GST was Rs 81,778 crore (including Rs 37,297 crore collected on goods import) and the cess was Rs 10,505 crore (including Rs 825 crore collected on imports), which was the second highest amount collected to date,” said PTI, citing an official statement.

For the month of October 2022, the Centre and states collected 74,665 crore in CGST and 77,279 crore in SGST.

For eight consecutive months, GST mop-up has exceeded Rs 1.40 lakh crore, while for two months it has crossed Rs 1.50 lakh crore.

Parag Mehta, indirect tax partner at N.A. Shah Associates, said October is also a month of celebrations and holidays when people spend big on real estate, cars, vacations and other necessities.

“From November 2022 onwards, it looks like the GST collection will definitely exceed INR 1.5 lakh each month,” he said.

Indirect tax partner Abhishek Jain says GST income is expected to increase as the festive season continues. The government’s focus on tax collection could result in an increase in tax collection in the months to come, he said.