Covid impact: June GST collection falls below Rs 1 trn-mark after 8 months

With reduction in caseload and easing of lockdowns, the e-way bills generated during June indicates recovery of trade and business, says govt

Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections for the month of June fell below Rs 1 trillion for the first time in months, government data released on Tuesday showed.

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of June is at Rs 92,849 crore. The collection dropped below Rs 1 trillion mark after posting above the mark for eight months in a row. GST collections moderated to a eight-month low of Rs 1.02 trillion in May. 

The revenues for the month of June 2021 are 2 per cent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year.

The figures include GST collection from domestic transactions between June 5 to July 5 since taxpayers were given various relief measures in the form of waiver/reduction in interest on delayed return filing for 15 days for the return filing month June for the taxpayers with the aggregate turnover upto Rs 5 crore in the wake of covid pandemic second wave.

The GST collection for June is related to the business transactions made during May. During May, most of the States, UTs were under either complete or partial lock down due to Covid. The e-way bill data for the month of May 2021 shows that during the month, 39.9 million e-way bills were generated as compared to 59 million in the month of April, down by more than 30 per cent.

However, with reduction in caseload and easing of lockdowns, the e-way bills generated during June is 55 million which indicates recovery of trade and business, the ministry of finance said.

The daily average generation of e-way bill for the first two weeks of April 2021 was 2 million, which came down to 1.6 million in last week of April 2021 and further to 1.2 million in the two weeks between to May 9-22. Thereafter, the average generation of e-way bills has been increasing and has reached again to 2 million level since week beginning June 20. Therefore, it is expected that while the GST revenues have dipped during the month of June, the revenues will see an increase again from July 2021 onwards.

Of the total collections, CGST is Rs 16,424 crore, SGST is Rs 20,397, IGST is Rs 49,079 crore (including Rs 25,762 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is Rs 6,949 crore (including Rs 809 crore collected on import of goods).