Undeterred by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the gross GST revenue collected in April 2021 hit a record high of Rs 1,41,384 crore. Out of which CGST is Rs 27,837 crore, SGST is Rs 35,621, IGST is Rs 68,481 crore (including Rs 29,599 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is Rs 9,445 crore (including Rs 981 crore collected on import of goods).
Despite the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic affecting several parts of the country, Indian businesses have once again shown remarkable resilience by not only complying with the return filing requirements but also paying their GST dues in a timely manner during the month.
The finance ministry said the GST revenues during April 2021 are the highest since the introduction of GST even surpassing collections in the last month (March 2021). In line with the trend of recovery in the GST revenues over the past six months, the revenues for the month of April 2021 are 14% higher than the GST revenues of March 2021. During the month, the revenues from domestic transactions (including import of services) are 21% higher than the revenues from these sources during the last month.
CII Chief Economist Bidisha Ganguly told FPJ, “It is a very good number as one was not expecting so high as the second corona wave since April has set in. Despite that the economic activities were not affected which is a very good sign. Probably, the government has been using different techniques for detection of frauds and have been successfully preventing them.’’ She said, “We need to be a little cautious as lockdown will have an impact on economic activities as the second wave has been very strong. We need to look at different scenarios.’’ According to Ganguly, double digit growth in the current fiscal is possible given that India had witnessed a negative growth last year.
The finance ministry said GST revenues have not only crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark during successively for the last seven months but have also shown a steady increase. These are clear indicators of sustained economic recovery during this period. Closer monitoring against fake-billing, deep data analytics using data from multiple sources including GST, Income-tax and Customs IT systems and effective tax administration have also contributed to the steady increase in tax revenue.
NAREDCO President Niranjan Hiranandani said, “This is an indication of higher economic growth. We in January anticipated the GDP growth of 10% plus by the end of fiscal. However, growth has actually gone faster and will probably result in higher GDP which will be beyond 12%.’’
The finance ministry said during April the government has settled Rs 29,185 crore to CGST and Rs 22,756 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue of Centre and the States after regular and ad-hoc settlements in the month of April 2021 is Rs 57,022 crore for CGST and Rs 58,377 crore for the SGST.
