Chandigarh : GST revenue receipts for the State of Punjab during the last month (August) remained at Rs. 1188.70 Cr. against Rs. 987.20 Crore for the August 2020 period thereby demonstrating a growth of 20.41%. The high growth rate is a fair indicator of the rapid economic recovery after the second wave of COVID-19.

A spokesperson of the Taxation Commissionerate said that the sectoral analysis of the GST receipts of the State suggest healthy recovery in sectors such as Iron and Steel, Electronic goods, Fertilizers, Telecom and Banking.

Besides the base effect of the abnormal previous year, the said growth is attributed to strong anti-evasion activity of the department involving rigorous monitoring of bogus billing and unscrupulous trade practices as well as deployment of advanced data analytics for holistic and effective tax administration. It is expected that the robust GST growth witnessed so far is likely to continue in the coming months as well.

The Spokesperson further said that in addition to the regular IGST settlement, Punjab has received ad-hoc settlement to the tune of Rs. 448.35 Crore in the month of August, 2021 for the first quarter of the financial year 2021-22. As a result, the GST revenue up to the month of August, 2021 has witnessed a high growth of nearly 80% as compared to corresponding period last year.

The Spokesperson further said that the tax collection from VAT and CST during the month of August, 2021 is Rs. 648.44 Crore and Rs. 26.97 Crore respectively. As compared to the same period last year, VAT and CST revenue collection have displayed an impressive growth of 24% and 40% this year thereby pointing to the upward curve of the economic recovery. The Punjab State Development Tax collection during August, 2021 remained at Rs.11.38 Crore with growth of 9.63% over the corresponding period last year.