Odisha Shows Good Indications In GDP Growth

Cuttack: Odisha is moving towards revival in growth of both GST and Non-GST revenue slowly but steadily as is observed from the collection figures of the last three months.

The collection from State GST during June ’20, July ’20, and August ’20 registered a growth rate of -5.63%, +13.04% and -1.76% in comparison to the corresponding periods of last year as the SGST collection could be 759.17 Cr., 794.02 Cr. and 686.15 Cr. during the said periods against the collection of 804.49 Cr, 702.44 Cr, and 698.47 Cr during June ’19, July ’19 and August ’19 respectively. (all figures in Rs.)(Source: GSTN)

The minor shortfall in collection of June ’20 and August ’20 are also due to the fact that GST Council prescribed return filing dates beyond the due dates i.e. 24th of succeeding months for taxpayers up to an annual turnover of Rs. 5 Cr without payment of interest and late fee. Such dealers who form a majority of total registered dealers have been allowed to file their returns for the month of July ’20 in September ’20 instead of August ’20. As a result of that, the CT & GST Organization could collect most of the returns with due payment of tax only from dealers having turnover of more than Rs. 5 Cr. during the previous year. This resulted in a minor shortfall of Rs. 12 Cr or -1.76% in the collection of SGST in August 2020 in comparison to the corresponding month of the previous year.

However, VAT Collection from petroleum products has shown a positive trend from July 2020 as it could be 521.47 Cr and 568.78 Cr respectively during July ’20 and August ’20 against the collection of Rs. 509.03 Cr and 491.02 Cr during July ’19 and August ’19 respectively registering a growth of 2.4% & 15.8% respectively.

There is also a positive trend in the collection of CGST and Cess during August ’20 as the collection under these heads have been Rs. 538.91 Cr. and 493.08 Cr. against Rs. 534.68 Cr and 448.91 Cr respectively during August 2019, witnessing growth rates of 0.7% & 10% respectively. However, due to negative growth of -22.70% in the collection of IGST (i.e. collection of 630.14 Cr. in August 2020 against 815.17 Cr. during August 2019), the Gross GST (SGST+CGST+IGST+Cess) the collection has registered a negative growth of -5.96%, though a substantial improvement considering the first-quarter growth of negative -35% compared to the corresponding period last year.

Another indicator of the growth of business of the state economy is the movement of vehicles, interstate, and intrastate, with increased utilization of waybills. As revealed from the system, the interstate and intrastate utilization of waybills have increased from 3356 nos and 8517 Nos during April 2020 to 15320 nos. and 19658 nos. in August 2020.

Despite the intermittent COVID lockdown, the State has also managed to increase the tax base by registering 12276 new registrants from April – July 2020. During the recent review of field officers Commissioner (Commercial Tax & GST), Sri S.K. Lohani has instructed all the officers to focus on areas prone to revenue leakages and plug them effectively, He has further advised them to take up thorough scrutiny of tax returns of suspected dealers and initiate necessary legal proceeding if malpractices or suppression of tax liability is detected against them. They have also been advised to focus on the collection of arrear revenue relating to pre GST period. They have been further advised to address all the genuine grievances of taxpayers on a priority basis to ensure that they are able to avail various services offered by our organisation in smooth & hasslefree manner.