Despite lack of business activity, GST collection in April astounding, says Anil Singhvi

In a special edition of the Editor’s Take show, Zee Business Managing Editor Anil Singhvi said that he was surprised about the goods and services tax (GST) collection in April. The central government on Friday reported a record GST revenue collection of Rs 1.41 lakh crore in April 2021. 

Singhvi says, the GST numbers for April are surprising because the majority of businesses in the month were muted amid the restrictions imposed by various states governments amid a surge in Covid-19 cases. 

See Zee Business Live TV Streaming Below:

The Market Guru said that sometimes numbers and figures are too good to believe, and the same happens with quarterly results too. He explains, “GST numbers for April has shown an exponential growth on one hand and auto sales numbers, on the other hand, have been expectedly utterly weak.” 

Undoubtedly these GST numbers are spectacular, says the market guru, however, unable to understand the reason behind this surge. He believes, these numbers have been coming from medicines (pharma) or food and beverages (FMCG), as even travelling, hospitality is closed. 

अप्रैल में 1.41 लाख करोड़ रिकॉर्ड GST कलेक्शन

अनिल सिंघवी- अप्रैल में कम बिजनेस एक्टिविटी के बावजूद रिकॉर्ड GST कलेक्शन चौंकाने वाला।#EditorsTake #GST #GSTCollection @AnilSinghvi_ pic.twitter.com/O0nMxIXgIy

— Zee Business (@ZeeBusiness) May 3, 2021

Moreover, at this current stage, people are again locked down in their homes amid the rising cases of coronavirus. In this regard, Singhvi says, people are either consuming data or food. He terms this figure as incredible, however, fails to understand supporting numbers and figures to this collection. 

The central government on Saturday released the gross GST revenue collection in the month of April 2021, which is at a record high of Rs. 1,41,384 crore. Of which CGST is at Rs. 27,837 crore, SGST is at Rs. 35,621 crore, IGST is at Rs 68,481 crore (including Rs. 29,599 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is Rs. 9,445 crore (including Rs. 981 crore collected on import of goods).  

The GST revenues during April 2021 are the highest since the introduction of GST even surpassing collections in the last month (March 2021). The GST revenues for April 2021 are 14% higher than the GST revenues in the last month of March 2021. In April, the revenues from the domestic transactions (including import of services) are 21% higher than from these sources during the last month.