Lucknow, June 5 -- Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday claimed its overall revenue earnings went up by Rs 2371 crore in May 2026 vis-a-vis collections in the same month in 2025. Its collections from VAT and excise, however, came down marginally in May 2026 against the collections of the same month last year. Minister for finance Suresh Khanna said the state government collected a revenue of Rs 20491 crore in May 2026-2027 against a sum of Rs 18120 crore collected in the same month in 2025-2026. He said this was 72.5 percent of the target. Khanna said the state government collected a sum of Rs 3010 crore from VAT in May 2026 against Rs 3012 collected in May 2025, thereby showing a decline of Rs 2 crore in the collections under this head. He said the collections from Excise also came down marginally from Rs 5451 crore in May 2025 to Rs 5388 crore in May 2026. The minister though did not give any reasons for collections from Excise, he said lower collections from the VAT were apparently because of low consumption of petrol and diesel following the government's appeal to reduce their consumption amid the rising geo-political tension in view of the US-Iran conflict. He said petrol and diesel are being sold cheaper in Uttar Pradesh than most of other states due to low VAT being imposed on these products in the state. Khanna said the state government's non-tax collections from mining and sub-minerals were Rs 321 crore in May 2026 against Rs 449 collected in the same month from the same head in 2025. He said the state government collected a tax revenue of Rs 41621 crore in the first two months of the first quarter of 2026-2027. He said this was 74.8 percent of the target for the same period and 12.4 percent of the annual target for 2026-2027....