The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition that federal and provincial governments took in $186-million in tax revenue from the sale of cannabis in the first 5-1/2 months following legalization, according to new Statistics Canada data. The Post's Vanmala Subramaniam writes that the tax earnings came from both excise taxes and GST, and were distributed almost evenly between the two kinds of taxes. Between October and the end of March, provinces came away with excise tax revenue totalling $79.1-million, while the federal government earned $18.8-million. Federal GST in that same time period came to $35.5-million, while provincial tax earnings from the sale of cannabis was $52.7-million. The government charges an excise tax of 10 per cent on the sale price of cannabis, or $1 per gram, whichever is greater. Early data showed revenue from excise taxes increasing on a quarterly basis: Excise taxes increased 12.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2019 from the fourth quarter of 2018 due to stronger sales by licensed producers to retail distributors. StatsCan predicts that excise taxes will continue to rise in the second half of the year, as more cannabis stores start opening across the country.