Amid Covid, Odisha records highest GST collection of Rs 3,849 crore in April

BHUBANESWAR: Amid a fierce Covid-19 second wave, Odisha recorded the highest ever GST collection of Rs 3,849.48 crore, including Rs 1,126.67 crore of SGST in April, posting an overall growth of around 17 per cent (pc) over the collection of March.

The growth in collection of tax in April over the total collection in March, which was supposed to be the month of highest collection being the end of financial year, indicated an impressive turnaround of the State economy.

Finance department sources said the gross GST collection of Rs 3,849.48 crore last month was the highest since the inception of GST regime in Odisha as Rs 2,955.6 crore was collected during April 2019 and Rs 774.29 crore in April 2020.

The State collected Rs 1,126.67 crore SGST, Rs 952.43 crore CGST, Rs 1,157.05 crore IGST and Rs 613.33 crore Cess in April. The SGST collection was Rs 927.6 crore in April 2019 and it drastically came down to Rs 360.36 crore in April last year due to nationwide lockdown for the pandemic. The previous highest was Rs 954.62 crore collected in March this year.

The significant rise in SGST collection during April has been attributed to better compliance, increased collection from the iron and steel sector besides from matured GST demand made by tax officers after return scrutiny.

Since all VAT paying dealers (petrol and liquor) had paid tax till March 25 during the month of March itself, the balance collection of Rs 218.95 crore for remaining five days was collected during April as against Rs 130.11 crore in the same month last year and Rs 183.92 crore in April 2019. Of the total collection, petroleum products registered a growth of 175.31 pc with Rs 166.87 crore in April as compared to Rs 60.61 crore in the same month last year.

“The Commercial Tax and GST organisation has been focusing on increasing the tax-base of GST with regular survey and registration. As many as 52,210 new registrants were brought under the GST fold in the last fiscal. All circles have been instructed to ensure 90 pc return filing within due date,” said a tax official.
Commissioner of CT and GST Sushil Kumar Lohani has instructed all field officers to detect the wrong return filers by applying data analytics and collect all taxes from them as per the provisions of law.

Tax officials have been asked to facilitate genuine tax payers and ensure that they are not put to any unnecessary harassment. The total e-way bill generated during April was 15.28 lakh against 11.91 lakh during April 2019 and 3.56 lakh during the same month last year due to the negative impact of Covid-19.