New Delhi, Dec 1 (IANS): Festive season demand helped the government collect Rs 1.03 lac crore in goods and services tax (GST) in the month of November, up 6 per cent over the same month last year.

The positive growth, a possible sign of recovery, has come after two months of negative growth.

During the month of November, the GST collection on domestic transactions witnessed a growth of 12 per cent, highest during the year. The GST collection on imports continued to see negative growth at (-)13 per cent.

"The gross GST revenue collected in the month of November, 2019 is Rs 1,03,492 crore of which CGST is Rs 19,592 crore, SGST is Rs 27,144 crore, IGST is Rs 49,028 crore (including Rs 20,948 crore collected on imports) and cess is Rs 7,727 crore (including Rs 869 crore collected on imports)," a Finance Ministry statement said.

The total number of GSTR 3B Returns, summary monthly returns, filed for the month of October up to November 30, 2019 was 77.83 lakh.

"The government has settled Rs 25,150 crore to CGST and Rs 17,431 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after regular settlement in the month of November, 2019 is Rs 44,742 crore for CGST and Rs 44,576 crore for the SGST," the Finance Ministry said.

This is the eighth time since the roll-out of GST in July, 2017 that monthly collection has crossed the mark of Rs 1 lakh crore. Also, November 2019 collection is the third highest monthly collection since introduction of GST, next only to April 2019 and March 2019 collections.

"Crossing Rs 1 trillion (Rs 1 lakh crore) in a festive month after a few months of tepid collections would act as sentiment-booster and help in keeping the fiscal deficit under control- hoping that this trend continues in the coming months," said MS Mani, Partner, Deloitte India.