NEW DELHI: Goods and services tax (GST) collections rose to Rs 1.16 lakh crore in July as economic activity picked up after lockdown across several states due to the second wave of the pandemic.
Latest data realeased by the finance minister on Sunday showed that collections rose 33% over a year ago, with revenue from domestic transactions up 32% and from imports being 36% higher. Data for July collections are based on sales in June. Due to the lockdown, collections had dropped below the psychologically important Rs 1-lakh-crore mark.
“With the easing of covid restrictions, GST collection for July 2021 has again crossed Rs 1 lakh crore, which clearly indicates that the economy is recovering at a fast pace. The robust GST revenues are likely to continue in the coming months too,” the finance ministry said.
Experts too seemed to agree. “The sharp increase in the collections for June 2021 indicates the resumption of economic activities in June and will raise expectations of better collections in the coming months.The improvement in GST collections-both on domestic transactions and imports,accompained by the fact that major producing states have shown significant increases-would indicate that the economic activities have resumes across the country,"said M S Mani,senior director at consulting firm Deloitte India.
There were, however, some concerns around the collections not yet reaching presecond wave levels. “In our view, this is further evidence that the graduated unlocking in June 2021 has triggered an incomplete recovery, which is expected to strengthen in July 2021, further boosting the August 2021 GST collections. The pace of growth across the states was highly uneven in July 2021, with some industrial heavyweights recording a sharp expansion,” added ICRA chief economist Aditi Nayar.
Source:timesofindia.com