Economic activities pick up pace: Sushil Kumar Modi

PATNA: Deputy chief minister (CM) Sushil Kumar Modi said on Wednesday that economic activities in the state were slowly picking up the pace as the volume of trade and tax collection had been showing a sustained increase since April.
The two-month lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus did have a devastating effect on economic activities, but the situation improved in June, especially after the beginning of Unlock 1.0, SuMo added.
Giving an example, he said, “Goods and items worth only Rs 135.8 crore had arrived for sale daily from outside the state in April, but the value and volume of the arrivals stood at Rs 310.63 crore per day in May. Till June 9, goods and merchandise worth Rs 427.69 crore had arrived for sale in the state.”
In terms of the nature of merchandise, Modi said edible items, medicines, medical equipment and fertilizer worth Rs 4,074 crore were brought to the state in April. Comparatively, the value of the arrivals increased to Rs 9,630 crore in May, which included items like iron and steel, electrical goods, cement, clothes, fabrics and vehicles worth Rs 6,568 crore. Trade in such goods was also reflective of the improvement in the construction sector, Modi said.
Besides, the state’s tax collection also went up. The total collection through commercial taxes, transport, registration, mining and land revenue was only Rs 467.61 crore in April, but it increased to Rs 1,317.72 crore in May.
“The drastic improvement could be gauged from the fact that the tax collection had dipped by 81.61% in April, 2020 compared to the collections made in April last year. However, the situation was better in May as the collection stood at 42.14%,” Modi said.
Improvement in tax collection has also been registered in various departments. If the collection from the registration department was merely Rs 4 crore in April, it increased to Rs 60.78 crore in May. The corresponding figures pertaining to the transport department are Rs 31 crore and Rs 60 crore. In the commercial taxes department, the earnings of Rs 256.21 crore made in April increased to Rs 693.9 crore in May.