Pandemic disruptions push June GST collection below Rs 1 lakh cr, first time in 9 months

India's gross GST revenue collection fell below the psychological mark of Rs 1 lakh crore for the first time this year, clocking Rs 92,849 crore in June 2021, as collections fell due to disruptions caused by the fresh wave of Covid-19.

Though the GST revenues during June 2021 are lower than the over Rs 1 lakh crore collections recorded in the previous month and a record Rs 1.41 lakh crore collection made in April, it is still a growth over June 2020 collections when GST numbers had remained low due to the first set of lockdowns.

Most tax experts had feared that the real impact of the pandemic and lockdowns in different parts of the country would pull down GST revenues significantly in May and then in June.

"The revenues for the month of June 2021 are 2 per cent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year", a finance ministry statement said.

According to the statement, the gross GST revenue collected in the month of June is Rs 92,849 crore of which 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).

The June numbers include GST collection from domestic transactions between 5th June to 5th July 2021 since taxpayers were given various relief measures in the form of waiver or reduction in interest on delayed return filing for 15 days for the return filing month June '21 for the taxpayers with the aggregate turnover upto Rs 5 crore in the wake of the second wave.

During this month the government has settled Rs 19,286 crore to CGST and Rs 16,939 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement, the statement said.

With June collections staying close to below the Rs 1 lakh crore mark, it would be the first month after a gap of eight months in a row when GST revenues had remained above the threshold. The collection is surprising as most of the States have been under strict lockdown due to the pandemic.

The GST collection for June, 2021 is related to the business transactions made during May, 2021. During May, 2021, most of the States/UTs were under either complete or partial lockdown due to Covid.

A finance ministry statement said that the e-way bill data for the month of May 2021 shows that during the month, 3.99 crore e-way bills were generated as compared to 5.88 crore in the month of April 2021, down by more than 30 per cent. However, with reduction in caseload and easing of lockdowns, the e-way bills generated during June 2021 are 5.5 crore which indicates recovery of trade and business. The daily average generation of e-way bills for the first two weeks of April 2021 was 20 lakh, which came down to 16 lakh in the last week of April 2021 and further to 12 lakh in the two weeks between 9th to 22nd May.

Thereafter, the ministry said, the average generation of e-way bills has been increasing and has again reached the 20 lakh level since the week beginning 20th June. 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, the finance ministry said.

"While the collections are lower than Rs 1 Trillion, which had become the norm for the past few months, considering the fact that it relates to transactions in May 2021 which was badly impacted by the pandemic, it would be considered as a very satisfactory collection. These numbers also reflect the economic resilience shown during the recent pandemic phase," said MS Mani, Senior Director, Deloitte India.