The Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection, a weathervanes of economic health, posted a 46% jump in June over the previous month, coming in at Rs 90,917 crore, indicating a recovery in business activity following a 68-day nationwide lockdown, although the number is still 9% short of the Rs 99,939 crore collected in June last year.

GST collections for the month of April was Rs 32,294 crore, a 72% year-on-year decline, but it was the first full month under the 68-day nationwide lockdown that was imposed from March 25 to check the spread of the coronavirus disease,the finance ministry said in a statement.

Although GST revenue for the month of May saw some improvements at Rs 62,009 crore, it was still 38% less than the revenue collected in the same month last year, the ministry added.

Government officials familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that the June figures also reflect some pending transactions from April and May because many taxpayers could not immediately file their monthly returns. It is also likely that they refect the impact of pent-up demand from the lockdown months.

In March , the revenue collection dipped by 8% to Rs 97,597 crore although the lockdown affected only the last week of the month.

Pratik Jain, partner and leader, Indirect Tax at PwC India said “While the entire collection does not necessarily relate to transactions in May (as many businesses would have availed the facility of late payment for earlier months, without interest or lower interest), the buoyancy shows that business is picking up. The government will hope that this trend continues.”

Revenue secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said GST collection in July should improve even more as economic activity is rapidly coming back to normal.

According to the ministry, revenue collection in June 2020 was affected by a 29% decline in revenues from import of goods. Revenues from domestic transactions (including import of services) also fell by 3%.

“However, since government has allowed a relaxed time schedule for filing of GST returns, returns of the month of April, March as well as some returns of February got filed during June 2020 and some returns of May, 2020, which would have otherwise got filed in June, will get filed during first few days of July,” the ministry added in the statement.

GST collections for the first quarter of the current financial year is 41% less than Rs 3,14,090 crore revenue collected during the same quarter previous year. “However, a large number of taxpayers still have time to file their return for the month of May, 2020,”the ministry pointed out.

“Gross GST revenue collected in the month of June, 2020 is Rs 90,917 crore of which CGST [Central GST] is Rs 18,980 crore, SGST [State GST] is Rs 23,970 crore, IGST [Integrated GST] is Rs 40,302 crore (including Rs 15,709 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 7,665 crore (including Rs 607 crore collected on import of goods),” the ministry said in its statement.

MS Mani, partner at audit firm Deloitte India said, “While a decline in GST revenues was expected due to business activities coming to a near standstill, these revenue numbers indicate that a revival is underway and collections will improve in coming months.”

“It is also very interesting to note that in June some of the larger producing states have shown an increase in collections or stable revenues compared to last year while some of the consuming states have shown a decline,” he said.