NEW DELHI: Goods and Service Tax collection for May stood at Rs 1.02 lakh crore, moderating from April’s record of Rs 1.4 lakh crore but still holding above the Rs 1 lakh crore mark for the eighth consecutive month, data from the finance ministry on Saturday showed.
“This is despite the fact that most of the states have been under strict lockdown due to the pandemic.
In addition, while the taxpayers with turnover above Rs 5 crore had to file their returns by June 4, which they would have otherwise filed by May 20, smaller taxpayers with turnover less than Rs 5 crore still have time till first week of July to file the returns without any late fee and interest,” according to a finance ministry statement.
“The actual revenues for the month of May 2021, thus would be higher,” it added.
Policymakers have been indicating that the impact on revenues would be less severe than last year due to the localised lockdowns, although some indicators had showed signs of a slowdown.
The statement said revenues for May are 65% higher than in the same month last year.
During the month, revenues from import of goods was 56% higher and the revenues from domestic transactions (including import of services) were 69% higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.
“It is good to see that despite the aggressive second Covid wave, the GST collections have remained upward of the Rs 1 lakh crore mark.
Also the dip was expected as these GST collections are for the supplies made in April, when part of the country was under lockdown,” said Abhishek Jain, tax partner at consulting firm , EY.
Economists expect receipts for June to be sluggish.
The gross GST revenue collected in May 2021 was Rs 1,02,709 crore of which CGST is Rs 17,592 crore, SGST is Rs 22,653, IGST is Rs 53,199 crore and cess is Rs 9,265 crore.