Indirect tax mop up grows 41% on central excise spurt

“Provisional revenue figures for indirect tax for April 16 is Rs 64,394 crores which is a 41% growth over April 15 (Rs 45,417 crore),” Adhia tweeted.

Excluding the collections through additional resource mobilisation measures, indirect tax mop-up rose by 17 per cent in April.

For April, 22 per cent growth was seen for customs collection, which increased to Rs 17,495 crore from Rs 14,286 crore in the same month last year. Service tax mop-up registered a growth of 27 per cent, rising to Rs 18,647 crore in April as against Rs 14,585 crore last year.

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Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha also termed the growth in indirect tax collections as “excellent”. “Excellent provisional figures (Rs 64,394 crore) for indirect taxes in Apr 16 – central excise up by 70% customs by 22%, & service tax by 27% over Apr 15!,” he tweeted.

The Union Budget for 2016-17 has projected net tax collections at Rs 10.54 lakh crore, out of which indirect tax collections, a reflection of production and trade activities in the country, are estimated to be Rs 7.79 lakh crore.

The government did not, however, give details on direct tax collections. Indirect tax collections have shown a healthy trend over the last financial year as well whereas direct tax collections have fallen short of the revised Budget estimate for 2015-16.

Indirect tax collections improved in last financial year, pushing up the indirect tax to GDP ratio to about 5.17 per cent as compared to 4.36 per cent for 2014-15. Indirect tax to GDP ratio for the current financial year 2016-17 is estimated to be 5.20 per cent, the ministry had said last week.

According to provisional estimates, indirect collections in 2015-16 had risen to Rs 7.12 lakh crore from Rs 5.43 lakh crore in the previous financial year, while total tax collections were Rs 14.54 lakh crore in 2015-16 compared with Rs 12.39 lakh crore a year ago.

The all-India direct tax collections for fiscal 2016 have fallen short of the revised tax target of Rs 7,52,021 crore by about Rs 18,000 crore, The Indian Express had reported last week. The Centre had, in February, lowered its direct tax target for 2015-16 by Rs 45,974 crore to Rs 7,52,021 crore.

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