After two years of being hit hard due to the pandemic, the Indian economy is now witnessing multiple signs of woes ebbing away and recovery coming around. After the record GST collections and exports, the government’s tax revenue for 2021-22 has crossed its estimate by Rs 5 lakh crore and the total investment project announcements during the year also surpassed the pre-pandemic level by 78 per cent.
The private sector accounted for about 69 per cent of the proposed investments during 2021-22, a significant jump from the pre-pandemic level of about 49 per cent in FY20 and just 30 per cent in FY17 and FY18, according to a survey by investment monitoring firm Projects Today.
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As per the survey, the private sector committed a total of Rs 13,27,564 crore investment announcing 4,745 new projects during the financial year 2021-22, which was about 144 per cent over the pre-pandemic year of 2019-20. The investments were planned across the sectors including electric vehicles, data centers, and green energy.
During the March 2022 quarter, a jump of 32 per cent was recorded in overall investment plans as against the previous quarter, with 2,467 projects worth Rs 5.46 lakh crore. This is compared with 2,719 new projects worth Rs 4.14 lakh crore during the previous quarter. In the full year, 10,445 projects worth Rs 19.27 lakh crore were announced, up sharply from the 8,551 projects worth Rs 10.72 lakh crore in the pandemic-hit year of FY21.
State-wise, Gujarat led in the total investment plans. The state got almost 30 per cent of private investments in 2021-22, and was followed by Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Karnataka in total investment plans. Tamil Nadu, however, emerged as the second-most preferred destination for private capital expenditure plans. The state, along with Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, also attracted a large chunk of fresh investments in sunrise sectors.
Meanwhile, according to the latest data released, the central government collected Rs 27.07 lakh crore in 2021-22, a jump of 34 per cent over the previous year. This is about Rs 5 lakh crore more than the Budget estimate of Rs 22.17 lakh crore. The high revenue collections for 2021-22 was led by 49 per cent growth in direct taxes and 20 per cent growth in indirect taxes.
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The revenue estimate of the Union Budget 2021-22 was Rs 22.17 lakh crore. The revenue mop-up in the previous financial year had stood at Rs 20.27 lakh crore. According to the data, total direct tax collections in the financial year ended March 31, 2022, is Rs 14.10 lakh crore and indirect tax at Rs 12.90 lakh crore.
The finance ministry in a statement said, “The decrease in tax collection in the two years 2019-20 and 2020-21 is due to the disruption in economic activity in the wake of COVID-19 but the rise in tax collection in the financial year 2021-22 is evidence of a sharp rebound and an economy that is back on track.”
