Lockdown | Tamil Nadu loses 85% of GST revenue in April

The Tamil Nadu government suffered an 85% fall in revenue collection of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in April, which was the first full month after the imposition of the COVID-19 lockdown since March 24.

This figure has been arrived at by comparing this year’s collections in April with those of the corresponding month in the previous year.

There was around 70% erosion in the overall revenue collection of commercial taxes (CT), including non-GST taxes such as State-level Value Added Tax on liquor, according to data available with the CT and Registration Department.

The CT collections are critical to the financial health of the State government as they are the largest contributor to the State’s Own Tax Revenue (SOTR), which, accounts for around 70% of the State’s total revenue receipts.

Big dip

In respect of collections through registration of documents, the situation was much worse,