The impact the second wave of Covid-19 showed on Goods and Service Tax (GST) as collections for June 2021 fell to Rs 92,849 crore, the Finance Ministry said on July 6. This is the first time in the last nine months that monthly GST collections have reduced below the Rs 1 lakh crore mark.

The last time this happened was in September 2020, when GST collections were Rs 95,480 crore. The June 2021 collection is the highest in ten months since August 2020. “The GST collection for June 2021 is related to the business transactions made during May 2021. During May, most of the States were under either incomplete or partial lockdown due to coronavirus,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

“The e-way bill data for May 2021 shows that during the month, 3.99 crore e-way bills were created as compared to 5.88 crores in April 2021, dropping by more than 30 per cent,” it said. The June figure compares to the GST collection of Rs 1.02 lakh crore in May. In April, GST collections came in at Rs 1.41 lakh crore, the highest ever since the start of the nationwide tax. In June, Central GST collection was Rs 16,424 crore; State GST was Rs 20,397, Integrated GST was Rs 49,079 crore, while cess was Rs 6,949 crore.