LUCKNOW, Jan. 6 -- The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday claimed an increase in its tax revenue, including the GST earnings, in December 2025 though its collections from the value-added tax (VAT) fell short marginally against the earnings under the same head in the same month in 2024. Minister for finance Suresh Khanna, who released the details of the state government's tax and non-tax earnings in December 2025 and first nine months of 2025-2026, said the state earned a tax and non-tax revenue of Rs 18,679.38 crore in December 2025 which was up by Rs 1,074.06 crore from Rs 17,605.32 crore earned in the same month in 2024. He said there were apprehensions about the decline in the GST earnings following the Next Gen Tax reforms. He said the state government had asserted that the Next Gen Tax reforms would boost demand and this is the reason that the state government earned about Rs 6,563.04 crore (Rs 220.36 crore more than 2024) from the GST in December 2025. There was a marginal dip of Rs 19.08 crore in the state government earnings from the VAT with collections under the head going down to Rs 3,086.83 crore in December 2025 from Rs 3,105.91 crore in December 2024. The state government earned a tax revenue of Rs 1,59,730.88 crore in the first nine months of 2025-2026, about 74.2 percent of the target for the period....