GST collection dips 44% in various States/UTs during April-August: Thakur

The Finance Ministry has informed Parliament that the GST collection dipped up to 44 per cent in various States/Union Territories during April-August period.

In response to question on GST collection, Minister of State in Finance Ministry Anurag Singh Thakur said that GST collection for the Centre during April-July was ₹1.81 lakh crore which is 26.2 per cent of the target ₹6,90,500 crore. States/UT registered deep decline with Daman & Diu seeing highest drop of 44 per cent.

In terms of States, GST collection in Jharkhand came down to ₹5,967 crore during April-August period this fiscal as against over ₹10,000 crore during corresponding period of last fiscal. Similarly, collection in Uttarakhand declined to ₹3,760 crore as against ₹6,327 crore, in Maharashtra to ₹52,154 crore from ₹75,910 crore, in Gujarat to ₹22,049 crore from ₹32,503 crore, in Karnataka to ₹24,763 crore from ₹34,362 crore and in Tamil Nadu the collection declined to ₹19,797 crore from ₹30,528 crore.

To another question on FDI from China, Thakur said that it was $461.4 million in 2015-16 which dropped to $229 million in 2018-19 and $163.78 million in 2019-20.

Curbs on FDI

The government has already put restrictions on FDI from China. Without mentioning name of China, Thakur said that the government amended FDI rules “to curb opportunistic takeovers/acquisitions of Indian companies due to the current Covid-19 pandemic.”

Now an entity of a country, which shares land border with India or where the beneficial owner of an investment into India is situated in or is a citizen of any such country, can invest only under the government route. Similarly, in the event of the transfer of ownership of any existing or future FDI in an entity in India, directly or indirectly through investor of a country having land border with India, such subsequent change in beneficial ownership will also require government approval.