New Delhi: The economic impact of the third Covid wave caused by the highly infectious Omicron variant was somewhat muted in India in comparison to the first two Covid waves, according to the latest data from Google retail mobility index, e-way bill generation and electronic toll count reveals, reveals the latest monthly economic report of the ministry of finance.
According to the report, the impact of the third wave on economic activity appears to be much less, even compared to the muted impact of the second wave. “As cases surged, retail mobility declined from 2.0 per cent in December 2021 to (-) 9.2 per cent in January 2022 amid pandemic induced restrictions across states. The average daily electronic toll count and collection moderated slightly in January though remained higher than in previous months,” the report said.
Google retail mobility index
As per the information shared in the monthly economic report, in comparison with January-February 2020 period, when the Covid-19 pandemic had not hit India, the retail mobility declined by only 9.2 per cent in January this year. The Google retail mobility index had declined by as much as 80 per cent in April 2020 when the entire country was under a complete lockdown.
Since then Google retail mobility index has always been below this level throughout the rest of 2020 and 2021 before marginally improving by just 2 per cent in December last year. During the second Covid wave, which was caused by Delta variant of Covid virus in April-May last year, the Google retail mobility index had declined by around 60 per cent in comparison with the mobility during the pre-pandemic January-February of 2020.
E-way bill generation
According to the report, the impact of the third wave was further seen in the slight dip in the volume of E-way bills generated in January this year vis-à-vis December last year. The finance ministry said the impact was moderate yet, as was also seen in January volumes being higher than the November volumes of 2021 as the volume of e-way bills generated during January this year was well above pre-pandemic levels.
“The robust E-way bill generation will most likely continue to garner monthly GST collections above Rs one lakh crore. January 2022 (reflecting December transactions) recorded an all-time high GST collection of Rs 1.41 lakh crore following administrative measures to enhance compliance and rate rationalization measures to correct inverted duty structure,” said the ministry.
The report said the demand for energy remained resilient as power consumption in January grew 2.1 per cent over the preceding month and 1.1 per cent over the corresponding month of the previous year, also reflecting the weak impact of Omicron on economic activity.
