Fewer e-way bills have been generated in May so far, with the daily average falling to a one-year low, indicating a sharp slowdown in economic activity owing to the intense second wave of Covid-19.
According to the data by Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), the IT backbone of the unified indirect tax regime, 19.4 million e-way bills have been generated on its portal till May 16.
This averages to 1.21 million e-way bills per day compared to 1.95 daily in April and 2.29 million in March, and is the lowest since May 2020 when it fell to 0.87 million bills per day.
This suggests that GST collection for May and June may see a downward trend after touching record levels in April and March.
April saw e-way bill generation decline to 58.7 million from 71.2 million in March, which reflected in the record GST collection in April at Rs 1.41 trillion.
The GST collection numbers for April largely capture transactions or supply made in March. February had seen an average of 2.28 million e-way bills generated per day. E-way bill generation in May will reflect in the GST numbers of June.
E-way bill is a document that needs to be generated by GST taxpayers for inter-state movement of goods if the value of the consignment exceeds Rs 50,000. It is an early indicator of the trend in demand and supply in the economy, which reflects in macroeconomic indicators with a lag.
August had seen 49.4 million e-way bills, an average of 1.59 million per day. The economy had started showing recovery signs in September last year after the impact of nation lockdown in the first quarter wore off. GST collections have been exceeding the Rs 1-trillion mark since October last year.
Key cities including Delhi, Mumbai, and those in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, among others are facing a lockdown, affecting supply of goods. Most cities have imposed restrictions on supplies of nonessentials by e-commerce players.