Gross direct tax collection plunges 31% so far this fiscal
Government banks will need more capital as NPAs set to rise
New Delhi: The gross direct gross direct tax collection dropped by 31 per cent till June 15 of the first quarter of FY21, with advance corporate tax mop-up falling 79 percent.
The sharp drop in the GST collection during April-June quarter of the current fiscal could partly be because of coronavirus lockdown, which resulted in shuttering of most of the country's economic activities.
"Gross direct tax collection fell a full 31 per cent to Rs 1,37,825 crore in the first quarter of FY21, down from Rs 1,99,755 crore in the June 2019 quarter," an income tax official said.
During the first two months of the June quarter, the government had imposed nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic and only selected economic activities were operational, resulting in slump in revenue collection.
Even though the lockdown has been lifted considerably from June 1, the economy is yet to crawl back to normalcy. The last day to pay advance taxes was June 15.
Earlier, data released by the Comptroller General of Accounts (CGA) indicated that GST collections have seen a precipitous drop of up to 70 per cent in April. CGA data for April 2020 showed that the Centre's share of GST collection during the month was a paltry Rs 16,707 crore compared to Rs 55,329 crore in the previous year, a drop of 70 per cent.
Usually, the GST numbers announced by the government comprise collection by both the Centre and States. However, CGA's data only shows the Centre's share of the GST collection.
The government is yet to release monthly GST collections data post, March 2020, which were for the business activities in February. The monthly GST collection numbers for a particular month are announced on the 1st of following month.
The gross GST revenue collected in March (for business activities in February) was at Rs 97,597 crore. Of this, CGST was Rs 19,183 crore, SGST was Rs 25,601 crore, IGST was Rs 44,508 crore (including Rs 18,056 crore collected on imports) and cess was Rs 8,306 crore (including Rs 841 crore collected on imports).