Patna : The Indian economy is showing definite signs of getting back on track. The latest green shoot visible is the GST collection data for the first quarter of the current financial year 2020-21.
Railways Minister Piyush Goyal had tweeted on June 22, 2020 – “Freight back on track: Yesterday, we moved 95% of the freight that we did on 21st June 2019. Taking June as a whole, from 1st – 21st June, we are down by only 8%. The average speed of freight train on June 21, 2019 was 22.98 km per hour. Yesterday, we clocked 41.74 km per hour.”
According to the preliminary numbers released by the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s current account turned into surplus in the fourth quarter of financial year 2019-20 for the first time in more than a decade. This ended in a marginal surplus of $ 0.6 billion or 0.1 percent of GDP in the fourth quarter (January-March) of 2019-20 as against a deficit of $ 4.6 billion or 0.7 percent of GDP in the fourth quarter (January-March) of 2018-19.
The foreign exchange reserves of India have already crossed the $ 0.5 trillion level. This happened in the month of June 2020.The sale of fertilizers in May 2020 was almost twice as much as in May 2019.
Despite the strict lockdown during the months of April and May, the Mutual Fund Industry in India added 1.58 lakh new investors during April and May, 2020. This has raised the number of overall investors count to 2.10 crore in May 2020 from 2.08 crore in March, 2020.
According to the data released by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, on July 1, 2020, GST collection in the month of June 2020 has been Rs. 90,917 crore while it was Rs. 62,009 crore during the month of May and Rs 32,294 crore during April 2020.
The collection of GST in the month of June 2020 is 91 percent of the GST collection during June 2019, when GST collection was of the order of Rs. 99,940 crore. It means that the economy has regained 91 percent of the GST related activities as compared to last year.
The vehicle sales data for the month of June 2020 came on July 1, 2020. Immediately after that data was released this is what Pawan K Goenka of Mahindra & Mahindra tweeted at 13.59 hrs on July 1, 2020 – “I had said last month Bharat May carry India. Tractor sales in June were 12% higher than last year – 2nd highest volume in June ever. Even in Automotive demand in rural India picking up faster than in urban. @MahindraRise.”
Any doubts that the Indian economy is not showing definite signs of green shoots emerging ???