GST collections soared to an all-time high of Rs 1.42 lakh crore in March as the fiscal year-end frenzy to meet targets saw strong sales and crackdown on evasions brought in more taxes. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection rose 15 percent annually in March, the finance ministry said on Friday.

With the record collection, the Centre's GST mop-up has exceeded the revised budget target of Rs 5.70 lakh crore set for the previous fiscal ended March 31, 2022. The previous high for collection of revenues from goods sold and services rendered was in January 2022 at over Rs 1.40 lakh crore.

"Coupled with economic recovery, anti-evasion activities, especially action against fake billers have been contributing to the enhanced GST. The improvement in revenue has also been due to various rate rationalization measures undertaken by the Council to correct inverted duty structure," the ministry said in a statement.

✅ All time high Gross #GSTCollection in March 2022, breaching earlier record of ₹1,40,986 crore collected in January 2022

✅ ₹1,42,095 crore gross #GST revenue collected in the monthRead more ➡️ https://t.co/WVBKPBkmTO(1/2) pic.twitter.com/ywPJxQfElw— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) April 1, 2022

The gross GST revenue collected in March 2022 was Rs 1,42,095 crore, of which Central GST was Rs 25,830 crore, State GST Rs 32,378 crore, Integrated GST Rs 74,470 crore (including Rs 39,131 crore collected on import of goods) and cess was Rs 9,417 crore (including Rs 981 crore collected on import of goods). During the month, revenues from import of goods were 25 per cent higher while the revenues from domestic transactions (including import of services) were 11 percent higher than the revenues from these sources in March 2021.

The gross mop-up in April 2021 was over Rs 1.39 lakh crore, May (Rs 97,821 crore), June (Rs 92,800 crore), July (over Rs 1.16 lakh crore), August (over Rs 1.12 lakh crore), September (over Rs 1.17 lakh crore), October (over Rs 1.30 lakh crore), November (Rs 1.31 lakh crore), December (over Rs 1.29 lakh crore), January (Rs 1.40 lakh crore) and February (Rs 1.33 lakh crore).