GST collections likely to cross Rs 1 lakh cr: SBI

Mumbai: Even with the new wave of Covid-19 resulting in 'lockdowns' in 15 parts of the country and impacting business all across, the country's GST collections, the barometer of economic activity in India, is likely to cross the one lakh crore mark for the sixth time in as many months in April, a SBI Ecowrap report said on Friday.

According to the internal simulation model adopted by SBI Ecowrap, the April GST collection is expected to be in the range of Rs 1.15-1.20 lakh crore. This is marginally short of the record high GST collection in March of Rs 1.24 lakh crore.

The optimism about possible GST collection in April, the report says, is from a healthy growth in E-way bill generation. "This will be quite impressive given the fact that during April, most of the States imposed partial lockdowns.

Also, it is heartening to note that despite the curbs due to the second wave, the All India GST E-way bills till 25 April have reached 4.89 crore and we estimate it to cross 5.5 crore comfortably, given the past trends," the report said.

"We believe that any disruption in GST collections will be transient and the States will have comfortable SGST collections."