Gross goods and services tax (GST) collections came in at Rs 1,13,143 crore in February, 7% larger than in the year-ago month, official information showed on Monday, indicating that a current surge in transactions in the economy was sustained by means of January.
From a month-to-month low of just more than Rs 32,000 crore in April 2020, the collections had progressively picked up given that September 2020, the mop-up has been larger than the year-ago levels and for the final 5 months, the revenues have been above the Rs 1-lakh-crore mark.
The collections had touched the peak of Rs 1,19,875 crore in January (December transactions). Apart from the financial recovery, a stepped-up drive against big-scale tax evasion and a crackdown on fake-invoice rackets with the help of information analytics also contributed to the acceleration.
“During the month (February), revenues from import of goods was 15% higher and the revenues from domestic transaction (including import of services) are 5% higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year,” the government stated in a statement.
Meanwhile, several financial indicators show somewhat sustained tempo in January-February. Manufacturing PMI hit a 3-month higher of 57.7 in January it eased a tad in February to 57.5, but was nevertheless way above the extended-term typical of 53.6.
Merchandise exports rose 6.2% in January from a year just before, the highest in 22 months and compared with a .1% rise in December. However, the output of eight infrastructures, with a close to 40% share in the index of industrial production, remains subdued. In truth, right after a .6% rise in September, it slid at a more quickly pace of .9% in October and 2.6% in November just before inching up marginally by .2% in December and .1% in January.
“The GST revenues crossed Rs 1 lakh crore fifth time in a row and crossed Rs 1.1 lakh crore the third time in a row after the pandemic despite this being revenue collection of the month of February. This is a clear indication of the economic recovery and the impact of various measures taken by tax administration to improve compliance,” the government stated.
Reacting to the Q3 GDP information released final week, which showed the economy registered flat development of .4% in the quarter right after two consecutive quarters of deep contraction brought on by the pandemic, the finance ministry stated the development reflected “further strengthening of V-shaped recovery” that started in Q2. The resurgence of the gross fixed capital formation was also triggered by robust capex by the Centre. The fiscal multipliers linked with capex are at least 3-4 occasions bigger than government final consumption expenditure, it stated.