GST REVENUE REMAINS ABOVE ₹1L CR IN MAY
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in May 2021 remained above the ₹1 lakh crore mark despite many parts of the country were hit by a devastating second wave of Covid-19 pandemic that led to lockdowns in key business centres in Maharashtra and Delhi from April this year.
The GST revenue in May -which reflects the actual business activities of previous month -- however, fell by over 27% at ₹1,02,709 crore compared to the record collections of ₹1,41,384 crore in April (reflecting actual business transactions of March 2021). Thus, the GST collections maintained the ₹1 lakh crore benchmark trend for the eighth consecutive month.
“The revenues for the month of May 2021 are 65% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year [₹62,151 crore],” Union finance ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
The Indian economy had been hard in the first quarter of previous year because of a 68-day nationwide lockdown since March 25, 2020. The severity of the lockdowns since April this year was not so hard this year because business activities were suspended only in containment zones.
The GST collection data for a Month is normally released on the first day of the next month. As various deadlines were extended to provide relief to taxpayers from the second wave, they could file returns up to June 4, a finance ministry official said requesting anonymity.
“The May figure, actually reflects business activities of from April 1 to April 30. In
usual circumstances, business entities have to file returns [GSTR 3B] of these transactions by May 20. Due to the second wave, businesses had been grated more time to file returns,” the official said.
GSTR-3B is a monthly summary statement of business transactions filed by a registered entity.
Out of the ₹1,02,709 crore gross GST revenue collected in May this year, central GST (CGST) was ₹17,592 crore, state GST (SGST) was ₹22,653 crore, integrated GST (IGST) was ₹53,199 crore, including ₹26,002 crore collected on import of goods.
The cess collection this month was ₹9,265 crore, including ₹868 crore collected on import of goods, the finance ministry statement said.
“During the month, revenues from import of goods was 56% higher and the revenues from domestic transaction (including import of services) are 69% higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year,” the statement said.
Businesses performed poorly last year because of a hard nationwide lockdown for over two months that led to a 24.4% contraction of the economy in the first quarter of 2020-21.
The economy shrank by 7.3% in the second quarter, before expanding by 0.5% in the three months ended December 31, 2020.
Overall, the Indian economy contracted by 7.3% in 2020-21, according to the GDP statistics released by the National Statistical Office on May 31.
MS Mani, senior director at consultancy firm Deloitte India said, “Collections of ₹1 lakh crore pertaining to the transactions of April 21 could possibly indicate that the level of disruptions in the primary sales due to the lockdown was much lower than what was anticipated.”