Amid surge in Covid cases, Maha likely to make masks a must
MUMBAI (MAHARASHTRA): The Maharashtra government might make it mandatory for people to wear face masks if COVID cases continue to see a rise, the state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Sunday.
“If Covid-19 cases continue to rise, then we will have to make the wearing of masks compulsory,” he said.
Stating that their aim is to speed up the vaccination programme, he assured that all the possible steps will be taken to ensure vaccination, especially among children in the state.
“As of now, we have asked people to wear it voluntarily but if it (Covid cases) increases then will have to think about it,” he added.
Tope assured that they are continuously monitoring the Covid situation in the state and this time, they are more inclined towards vaccinating the children.
“We are monitoring the situation in the state- our focus is to boost vaccination for kids in the state. The vaccination programme will start soon; it will be difficult for us but we will make every possible effort to complete the task,” he added.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, so far, India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 189.17 crores (1,89,17,69,346); of which, more than 2.90 Cr (2,90,98,946) adolescents have been administered the first dose of the vaccine against COVID-19.
As per the ministry, India’s active caseload currently stands at 19,092 with the active cases constituting 0.04 per cent of the country’s total positive cases.
Currently, India’s Covid recovery rate stands at 98.74 per cent as 2,876 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours and the cumulative tally of recovered patients (since the beginning of the pandemic) is now at 4,25,36,253.
With 3,324 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the country has observed a total of 4,71,087 COVID-19 tests being conducted. So far, the country has conducted over 83.79 crores ( 83,79,13,110) cumulative tests rates are ad valorem (based on the value of a transaction).”
However, surging prices of certain commodities due to supply chain disruptions because of war in Ukraine is a global phenomenon and temporary, he said.
“Besides, rising fuel rates, such as petrol and diesel, have no impact of the collections as they are outside the GST net,” Rastogi added.
The higher revenue generation indicates maturity of the new indirect tax regime that was launched in July 2017, and further growth could be seen after tax rate rationalisation takes place, said MS Mani, partner at Deloitte India, a consultancy.
The GST Council in September 2021 set up a group of ministers (GoM), headed by Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, to examine the issue of correction of inverted duty structure for major sectors, rationalise tax rates and review exemptions to augment collections.
Mani also pointed at significant collections by many states on improved business activities.
“The steep growth in the GST collections is based on all major states reporting increases ranging from 9% to 25%, GST return filing standing at 1.06 crore returns, e-way bill generation at 7.7 crores, accompanied by a deep focus on data analytics to curb evasion,” he said, adding that recent changes on permitting input tax credits only upon timely compliance by vendors also helped in improved collections.
The GST collections in April also saw the highest ever tax collection in a single day on April 20, 2022, when Rs 57,847 crore was paid through 9.58 lakh transactions, the finance ministry said. The highest single day payment on the same date last year was Rs 48,000 crore through 7.22 lakh transactions.
This is the 10th month in a row that GST revenues crossed Rs 1 lakh crore.
The record collection of Rs 1,67,540 crore in April is 19.92% higher than Rs 1,39,708 crore achieved in the same month a year ago, according to official data.
The gross revenue collected in April has Rs 33,159 crore central GST ( CGST) component, Rs 41,793 crore state GST ( SGST) and Rs 81,939 crore integrated GST (IGST), which includes Rs 36,705 crore collected on import of goods.
Cess collections in the month of April was Rs 10,649 crore, including Rs 857 crore collected on import of goods, according to the finance ministry.
The central government has settled Rs 33,423 crore to central GST and Rs 26,962 crore to state GST from integrated GST.
The total revenue of the central government and the states in April after regular settlement is Rs 66,582 crore for central GST and Rs 68,755 crore for the state GST, the finance ministry said.
Total number of e-way bills generated in March was 7.7 crore, 13% higher than 6.8 crore e-way bills generated in February, which reflects recovery of business activity at a faster pace, it said.