Wednesday October 10, 03:48 AM
Customs, excise mop-up rises 10.8%
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By Economy Bureau
In a stark contrast to the buoyant direct tax mop up, customs and excise duty collections have risen by a mere 10.8% in the first six months of this fiscal. The government collected Rs 1,03,134 crore from customs and excise duty in April- September this year as compared with Rs 93,108 crore in the same period last fiscal, an official release on Tuesday said. Customs duty collections rose to Rs 48,480 crore in the first six months of this fiscal, a rise of 16.1% as compared with Rs 41,773 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal. However, in September, customs duty collections rose by 4.9% to Rs 7,975 crore. Excise duty collections have improved marginally and risen by 6.5% to Rs 54,654 crore in April-September this fiscal as compared with Rs 51,334 crore in the same period last year. In September alone, the government collected Rs 10,186 as excise duty, an increase of 7.2%. Meanwhile, service tax collections till August 2007 grew at a steady 35.4% to total Rs 16,867 crore as compared with Rs 12,459 crore in the same period last fiscal. Service tax collections in the month of August however saw a drop in growth. The government collected Rs 3,219 crore in August as service tax, an increase of only 23.3%. According to Budget estimates, customs duty receipts are expected to rise 20.01% to Rs 77,066 crore during 2007-08 while excise revenue is expected to increase by 6.25% to Rs 1,19,000 crore. However the half yearly collection trends reveal that while the government is likely to reach its BE for customs duty collections, it may fall short once again on the BE for excise duty collections. Low excise duty collections have remained a cause of concern for the government and point towards revenue leakages. The CBEC plans to prevent such revenue leakage by more frequent audits.
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