Bhubaneswar, Despite lockdown due to COVID-19, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in Odisha has witnessed a positive growth rate for the first time during the current financial year in the month of July, said an official on Saturday.

The Odisha GST (OGST) collection in July increased to Rs 794.02 crore as against Rs 702.44 crore made during the corresponding month in 2019, registering a growth of 13.04 per cent, said the official.

SK Lohani, Commissioner of Commercial Tax and GST, reviewed the GST collection with the senior officials on Saturday.

However, in view of setback to the economy due to COVID-19, particularly in the first quarter of 2020-21, the gross GST collection (OGST+ IGST+ CGST+ Cess) till the end of July is Rs 7540 crore with a negative growth rate of 28 per cent.

The cumulative Odisha GST collection till July is Rs 2,354 crore with a negative growth rate of 22 per cent.

The trend though has now been reversed with the encouraging results in July 2020, efforts are being made to continue this trend and also recover the shortfall of the first quarter as much as possible in the remaining period of the financial year, the official said.

The collection from one of the non-GST items - petroleum products-has also shown encouraging trend during July.

The collection of July against this item increased to Rs 521.47 crore from Rs 509.03 crore collected in July 2019, registering a growth rate of 2.5 per cent, the official said.