Amid lockdown, Maharashtra reports fall in April GST revenue by just 1%.

Maharashtra, the worst affected state with 8,000 plus deaths may pose a gloomy picture but things ain't that bad when we see the data points of April 2020. While it may be true that retail shop owner and specialty businesses like wedding, sports have taken an 80% fall in business, the latest GST figures shared by FM Sitharaman on her official twitter handle has surprised me. Maharashtra, India's financial capital has reported a fall of just 1% in GST Revenue when compared with April 2019.

In April 2020, Maharashtra had collections of Rs 15,143 crore which came down to Rs 14,987 crore in April 2020 because of stringent national lockdown. A fall of just 1% may be the result of our robust financial system which pays GST state share in Maharashtra. State Bank of India in its filing at BSE said that 90% of clients are paying loan EMI is time. This feat wouldn't have been possible without our 'Honest Janata'.

Nationally, the gross GST revenue collected in the month of June 2020 is Rs. 90,917crore of which CGST is Rs. 18,980crore, SGST is Rs. 23,970crore, IGST is Rs. 40,302crore (including Rs. 15,709crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is Rs.7,665 crore (including Rs. 607crore collected on import of goods).

The government has settled Rs. 13,325crore to CGST and Rs. 11,117crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after regular settlement in the month of June 2020 is Rs. 32,305 crore for CGST and Rs. 35,087 crore for the SGST.

The revenues for the month are 91% of the GST revenues in the same month last year. During the month, the revenues from import of goods were 71%and the revenues from the domestic transactions (including import of services) were 97% of the revenues from these sources during the same month last year. During the month of June, returns of February, March, and April 2020 have also been filed in addition to some returns of May 2020 since the Government has allowed a relaxed time schedule for the filing of GST returns. Some returns of May 2020, which would have otherwise got filed in June 2020, will get filed during first few days of July 2020.

The revenues during the financial year has been impacted due to COVID-19, firstly due to the economic impact of the pandemic and secondly due to the relaxations given by the Government in filing of returns and payment of taxes due to the pandemic. However, figures of past three months show recovery in GST revenues. The GST collections for the month of April was Rs. 32,294 crore which was 28% of the revenue collected during the same month last year and the GST collections for the month of May was Rs. 62,009 crore which was 62%of the revenue collected during the same month last year. The GST collections for the first quarter of the year is 59%of the revenue collected during the same quarter last year. However, a large number of taxpayers still have time to file their return for the month of May 2020.

As India unlock, lets hope that our GST collections rise back to Rs 1,00,000 crore.

Source - PIB.