BHUBANESWAR: After registering a growth of 13.04 per cent (pc) in July, Odisha’s State GST revenue dipped by 1.76 pc in August amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. The SGST collection was Rs 686.15 crore last month as compared to Rs 698.47 crore during the same period in 2019.
The collection in June and August fell short of the target after the GST Council prescribed return filing beyond the due dates for the taxpayers with annual turnover up to Rs 5 crore without payment of interest and late fee due to the pandemic.
Such taxpayers, who form a majority of total registered dealers, have been allowed to file their returns for the month of July in September instead of August this year. As a result, the CT and GST wing could collect most of the returns with due payment of tax only from dealers having turnover of less than Rs 5 crore leading to a shortfall of Rs 12 crore in collection of SGST in August.
The collection was Rs 759.17 crore and Rs 794.02 crore in June and July against Rs 804.49 crore and Rs 702.44 crore collected during the corresponding months last year.
However, the VAT collection from petroleum products has shown a positive trend from July as it was Rs 521.47 crore and Rs 568.78 crore respectively during July and August against the collection of Rs 509.03 crore and Rs 491.02 in July and August 2019, registering a growth of 2.4 pc and 15.8 pc respectively. Similarly, collection of CGST and cess has recorded Rs 538.91 crore and Rs 493.08 crore in August against last year’s Rs 534.68 crore and Rs 448.91 crore, witnessing a growth rate of 0.7 pc and 10 pc respectively.
However, the gross GST (SGST+CGST+IGST+Cess) collection has registered a negative growth of 5.96 pc due to drop of 22.7 pc in collection of IGST (Rs 630.14 crore in August this year against Rs 815.17 crore in August 2019).
The inter-state and intra-state utilisation of waybills have increased from 3,356 and 8,517 in April to 15,320 and 19,658 in August.
Commissioner (Commercial Tax and GST) SK Lohani said Odisha is moving towards revival in growth of both GST and non-GST revenue slowly but steadily as it is observed from the collection figures during the last three months.
“Despite the intermittent Covid lockdown, the State has also managed to increase the taxbase by registering 12,276 new registrants during April-July,” he said. Lohani has asked all the officers to focus on areas prone to revenue leakages and plug them effectively.
Tax collection:
August - Rs 686.15 cr
July - Rs 794.02 cr
June - Rs 759.17 cr
Rs 698.47 cr in August, 2019