Economic activities in the Unlock period in Uttar Pradesh are fast returning to normal after the Covid induced disruption as 6.74 per cent growth in revenue collection has been recorded in August 2020 compared to the corresponding month in the previous financial year.
UP’s Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said that there was an increase of around Rs 600 crore in the collection of revenue in the month of August, which was around 6.74 per cent more compared to August, 2019.
The main contributor in the hike in revenue collection was the Excise department which recorded an increase of over Rs 400 crore.
Compared to a revenue kitty of about Rs 8,942 crore in August 2019, the collection in August 2020 breached the level of Rs 9,545 crore, nearly Rs 600 crore higher, Khanna said in a press conference here on Thursday.
After a sluggish revenue collection in the first quarter of the current fiscal, the period of lockdown, particularly in April and May 2020, the state earnings have been witnessing improvement with the revenue collection in July 2020, at Rs 10,675 crore, reaching nearly 97 per cent of July 2019, when the mop up had stood at about Rs 10,926 crore.
“The economic activities in UP had begun to gain momentum from July, which was also reflected in our revenue collection,” the minister noted.
Underlining the “encouraging” trajectory of collections, Khanna claimed that the UP government had probably outperformed all the peer states in terms of the state earnings.
“If the economic position is good, then all the other sectors also fall into place automatically. Therefore, increasing revenue collection has been among our top priorities,” he said.
Among the major revenue heads, the collection under the goods and services tax (GST) and value-added tax (VAT) in August 2020 stood at Rs 5,329 crore compared to Rs 5,126 crore in August 2019. Similarly, the Excise and Mining departments’ revenue mop up in August 2020 surged to Rs 2,310 crore and Rs 171 crore respectively against Rs 1,882 crore and Rs 109 crore in August 2019.
Owing to the impact of Covid lockdown, against tax and non-tax revenue target of Rs 46,127 crore during April-June 2020, the state’s collection stood at merely Rs 17,412 crore or 37.74 per cent of the quarterly target.
Of this, the tax revenue during April-June 2020 stood at Rs 15,716 crore against the target of Rs 41,602 crore, which was 37.77 per cent of the quarterly target.
Similarly, the non-tax revenue mop up stood at Rs 1,696 crore or 37.5 per cent compared to Rs 4,525 crore during the April-June quarter of 2020-21.
However, the state government managed to pay the salaries and pensions to state employees and retired personnel on time without any deductions even when the revenue collection had hit the nadir, although there were instances of some states resorting to delays or deductions to manage the adverse financial condition arising out of the lockdown.
The UP government is in the process to recalibrate revenue targets of the current financial year to incorporate lockdown impact. The state is aiming to touch last financial year’s revenue levels, although the targets set earlier were 10-15 per cent higher.