Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections are likely to remain robust at about ₹1.15 lakh crore to ₹1.2 lakh crore in April, despite the spate of lockdowns across the country, SBI said in a report on Friday, ahead of the official GST revenue data expected on May 1.
GST collections have clocked more than ₹1 lakh crore for six months in a row, with a record ₹1.24 lakh crore flowing into the exchequer’s coffers in March.
“Our internal simulation model indicates that Apr’21 GST collections will be in the range of ₹1.15-1.20 lakh crore. This will be quite impressive given the fact that during the April month most of the States imposed partial lockdowns and this move is expected to hamper economic momentum,” SBI group chief economic adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh said in the report, citing the e-way bills for the month as another justification.
“It is heartening to note that despite the curbs due to the second wave, the All India GST E-way bills till April 25 have reached 4.89 crore and we estimate it to cross 5.5 crore comfortably, given the past trends,” he said.
Last year, at the peak of the lockdown in April and May 2020, only 0.9 crore and 2.5 crore e-way bills were generated, respectively. In March this year, when GST collections peaked at ₹1.24 lakh crore, 7.1 crore e-way bills were generated.
