BHUBANESWAR: The Covid-19 pandemic leading to a negative growth of 24 per cent (pc) during the first five months of the 2020-21 fiscal notwithstanding, Odisha has made a rebound, posting a positive growth of 0.56 pc in overall annual GST collection in the State.
Official sources said the gross GST collection (CGST, IGST, SGST and Cess) was Rs 29,852 crore in the recently ended financial year against Rs 29,687 crore in 2019-20.
With Rs 954.62 crore, Odisha has recorded highest ever SGST collection in March against Rs 785.35 crore collected in the same month last year. The March collection was the highest in a month since implementation of GST in July 2017. The previous highest SGST collection was Rs 927.60 crore in April 2019.
Gross GST collection in March was Rs 3,285.29, recording a rise of around 25 pc over Rs 2,641.95 crore collected during the corresponding month last year. This was the highest growth in gross GST collection among major states of the country during the month as also for the fourth consecutive month. The growth was 20 pc, 25 pc and 20 pc in December 2020, January and February 2021 respectively
in comparison to the corresponding period of previous fiscal.
The VAT collection from petrol and liquor was Rs 1,518.61 crore in March which is also the highest during the current financial year. It exceeded the collection of Rs 1,116.28 crore in March 2020 registering a growth of 36.04 pc. Overall VAT revenue during 2020-21 has also turned positive with a growth of 3.46 pc despite poor collection during first quarter of the last fiscal.
Collection from petroleum products registered a growth of 41.85 pc with Rs 1,225.93 crore last month against Rs 864.26 crore in March last year. The VAT from liquor also recorded a growth of 16.13 pc with collection of Rs 292.62 crore in March against Rs 252.01 crore in the same month last year.
Officials attributed the growth in GST collection to high compliance. Apart from regular admitted tax, substantial collection has come from payment by defaulters against matured demand and deposit of tax deducted at source (TDS) by the government agencies (primarily engineering divisions). Collection of
arrear tax (pre-GST period) has also gone up by almost 50 pc with collection of Rs 189 crore.
The record collection of SGST in March is despite below par performance in some of the sectors due to adverse impact of the pandemic. The overall loss of SGST during 2020-21 was around Rs 429.85 crore with gross annual collection of Rs 8,292.15 crore against Rs 8722 crore during 2019-20.
Officials said apart from collection, the Commercial Tax and GST Organization has also been focusing on increasing the tax base of GST with pro-active survey and registration.
As many as 47,191 new tax payers were brought under the GST fold during the financial year. In addition, 1,22,417 GSTR 3A notices were issued to non filers, 17,680 assessment under section 62 initiated for non filing of returns and demand in 10,770 cases raised through demands and recovery proceedings (DRC-07).
The number of e-way bill generated by dealers from Odisha was 15.55 lakh during March which is the highest number of e-waybills generated during the financial year. The e-waybill generation has also shown a positive growth of 59.32 pc as it has increased from 9.76 lakh in March 2020 to 15.55 lakh during March 2021.
"Data analytics is being used for generation of various analytical reports. Based on data analytics, 63,907 returns have been scrutinised out of which discrepancy noticed in 14,074 cases and statutory action initiated," said an official.
Meanwhile, enforcement activities have been stepped up in order to increase the compliance level among taxpayers and unearth large scale GST frauds. Based on intensive data analysis and internal intelligence, the State Enforcement Wing has busted many rackets involved in raising bogus invoices and arrested 17 persons for their involvement in availing and passing of bogus input tax credit (ITC).