Finance Minister Suresh Khanna said that green shoot in the state’s economy were visible now with significant improvement in revenue collections in July.
He said that revenue collection had improved to Rs 10,675.42 crore in July, which was 97.7 per cent of the collection in the corresponding year last year, due to effective financial discipline.
The finance minister said that revenue collection was hit in previous quarter of 2020-21 fiscal due to disruptions caused pandemic and nation-wide lockdown.
“Revenue collection has improved in July due to financial discipline. While tax revenue collected in July, 2019 stood at Rs 10,926.36 crore, it is Rs 10,675.42 crore this year which is around 97.7 per cent,” he said.
Khanna said that it was an indicator that the state was in a better position in July as compared to the last three months. He expressed hope that the state would soon be back to pre-COVID-19 position.
The minister claimed that the state government managed to pay the salaries and pension to its staff on time without delay.
Giving details, Khanna said, “GST collection was Rs 6224.16 crore in July this year as against Rs 6564.19 crore in July last year. But in three heads there were marginal increase in collection, including VAT, Stamps & Registration and Mining.”
“In VAT, the collection in July was Rs 1903.54 crore as compared to Rs 1702.19 crore in July,2019. In Stamp & Registration, collection was Rs 4421 crore as compared to 4214 crore last year and in Mining, Rs 178 crore against Rs 147 crore last year,” he said.
In April, the first month of the current fiscal, the state government faced huge resource crunch and hence banned payments of all kinds of arrears to state employees till September 30. The government also directed all departments to not to issue any financial sanction and release for big construction projects and land acquisition without obtaining prior approval of Finance department.
A government order issued by Finance department in July said that the decision was taken in view of sharp fall in revenue collection in the first quarter of 2020-21 fiscal and for cash management.
Suresh Khanna, also parliamentary affairs minister, said that the coming Assembly session starting August 20 would be short in view of the pandemic and social and physical distancing would be strictly followed. The first floor would also be used and guests would not be allowed. Besides, permanent passes to former MPs and MLAs will also remain suspended.