The Modi government is elated over the steady improvement in the collection of goods and services tax (GST) in recent months. Along with the sharp growth in collections of other Union taxes, GST collections have also crossed the Rs 1-trillion mark for each of the last six months beginning July 2021.

Indeed, barring the months of May and June 2020, when the second wave of Covid-19 had adversely impacted the pace of economic activities, the monthly GST collections have stayed above the Rs 1-trillion mark for the last 15 months. More recently, these collections have amounted to over Rs ...