High GST collection indicates economic recovery, says Finance Secretary

The goods and services tax (GST) collection crossing the ₹1 lakh crore mark for the first time since February shows a pick-up in economic activities and in some areas we have gone into the positive territory, Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said.

“So far, as the economic recovery is concerned, we have seen certain credible signs of recovery, particularly in the last two months,” he told Hindustan Times on Monday (November 2).

“In many areas, we have reached the pre-Covid level and in some areas we have gone into the positive territory. In some of these areas we have not only reached the pre-Covid level, but also crossed that and seeing further growth,” he added.

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Talking about E-Way bills (electronic permits for goods movement), he explained, “I will tell you some figures, which are the latest ones. First is that of E-Way bills, which indicates production, movement of goods and also consumption. In order to get E-Way bill generated, you have to produce things, you need to transport them, and then businesses have to receive and sell them. So it gives you an indication of business activity.”

He further added, “…if you see the GST collection figures, we had a positive 4% (annualised) growth in September 2020 at ₹95,480 crore. The collections saw more than 10% growth in October this year at ₹1.05 lakh crore compared to the same month last year, which definitely shows a pickup in the economic activities.”

In a statement on Sunday, the Ministry of Finance said the gross GST revenue collected in the month of October was ₹1,05,155 crore of which CGST is ₹19,193 crore, CGST is ₹25,411 crore, IGST is ₹52,540 crore (including ₹23,375crore collected on import of goods) and cess was ₹8,011crore (including ₹932 crore collected on import of goods). The total number of GSTR-3B Returns filed for the month of October up to October 31 is ₹80 lakh.

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It stated that the government had settled ₹25,091 crore to CGST and ₹19,427 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue earned by the Central and the state governments after regular settlement in the month of October is ₹44,285 crore for CGST and ₹44,839 crore for the SGST.

“The revenues for the month are 10% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year. During the month, revenues from import of goods was 9% higher and the revenues from the domestic transaction (including import of services) are 11% higher that the revenues from these sources during the same month last year. The growth in GST revenue as compared to that in months of July, August and September, 2020 of -14%, -8% and 5% respectively clearly shows the trajectory of recovery of the economy and, correspondingly, of the revenues,” the Ministry of Finance said.

Deloitte senior director M.S. Mani said the numbers indicate the definitive revival of consumption and festival spends across the economy.

“Continuance of this trend will help in narrowing the fiscal deficit for FY21 and will go a long way in reviving business confidence across sectors as the impact of the unlockdown process across states gets translated into GST collection figures,” Mani was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Meanwhile, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) registered a 15% growth in October in terms of volume with 2.07 billion transactions worth ₹3,86,106 crore, according to National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).