CHANDIGARH: With the collection of over Rs 1,185 crore as goods and services tax (GST) in January – the highest in a month in the 2020-21 fiscal year — the Punjab government has been able to achieve growth in GST collection continuously for the fifth month since September last year.
These are indicators of economic recovery, but due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic the Punjab government only managed to collect 17.89% less GST revenue this fiscal compared to 2019-20 till January 31.
Punjab’s net GST collection remained at Rs 9,067 crore till January 31 this year compared with Rs 11,042 crore as on January 31, 2020. Even the state’s January GST collection (Rs 1,185crore) is lower than Rs 1,194 crore collected in January 2020. As the Punjab government had set the annual GST collection target of Rs 15,858 crore in 2020-21, it had been able to collect Rs 9,067 crore till January 31, which comes to 57% collection.
At the same time, the cash-strapped Punjab government got some relief after the central government released an amount of Rs 1,820 crore as GST compensation in the first month of this year. Still, Punjab’s GST compensation pending with the central government as on January 31 remains Rs 8,253 crore. The Centre had last month released Rs 1,841 crore as GST compensation to Punjab for the first time after it was stopped after March 2020.
“In the last five months, there has been a growth over the past year in terms of GST collection. There is a consistent growth. This January, the GST collection is almost at par with January 2020,” said Punjab taxation commissioner Nilkanth S Avhad.
Punjab has recorded a growth of over 21% in the collection of value-added tax (VAT) in January this year (Rs 531 crore) against the collection of Rs 436 crore in January last year. The overall VAT growth of this fiscal year reached 10% as against the last year. The state government has succeeded in collection of Rs 4,875 crore VAT this year till January 31 against Rs 4,429 crore collected till January last year.
“We have covered up the loss for April, May and June, and have registered 10.08% net growth this year in collection of VAT,” said the taxation commissioner.