In what can be regarded as early signs of economic recovery, GST collection in Odisha has seen a 21% increase in October 2020 as compared to the corresponding month last year. With this, the state has recorded positive growth in GST collections for the second consecutive month.
The total collection registered in October 2020 is at Rs 2428.27 crore as against Rs 1993.84 crore in October 2019. Similarly, Rs 2,383.99 crore was collected in September 2020 as against Rs 2,015.04 crore in the corresponding month of 2019 – an 18.3% growth.
The October GST collection also registers a 5.16% growth month-on-month. However, Odisha’s progressive GST collection for FY21 remains negative due to the drastic economic slowdown that occurred due to the prolonged nationwide lockdown.
The VAT collection from non-GST goods has also seen an uptick in the last couple of months owing to an increase in consumption as well as other factors. Non-GST revenue has grown 36% in October as compared to the same month last year.
“We hope the collection in November will be more as there has been significant growth in economic activities during the festive season. Sale of vehicles has also seen an encouraging trend,” said a senior official at the Commissionerate of Commercial Tax and GST.
“The turnaround was due to improvement in economic activity as well as the regular persuasion and follow up by field staff duly supported by data analytics for targeted intervention and effective implementation,” he added.
The settlement of IGST for the state during October was Rs 480.83 crore as compared to Rs 307.69 crore in the same month last year – registering a 56.27% increase. Similarly, the cess collection has seen a 57.55% growth in October 2020.
While these are still early days of the post-pandemic era, these numbers are encouraging and are perhaps pointing towards a gradual economic recovery.