NEW DELHI, Nov 15: Revenue collections continued to be dismally low and fell short of the target by Rs 7000 crore during April to October this year, official sources said today."The position is that in October excise and customs revenue grew by a mere 4.6 per cent as compared to corresponding period last year but this is not in tandem with the moving target,'' the sources said.The indirect tax collections were way behind the targeted figures of Rs 1.04 lakh crore, the sources said, adding while excise grew by 7 to 8 per cent, customs growth were low at 1.9 per cent as compared to last year.But the performance in the direct collections was unusually good as it registered a growth of 19 per cent during April to October this year resulting in the collections being Rs 607 crore higher than the target. The corporate tax collections were a ''bonanza'' as it recorded a 31.7 per cent growth during April to October. The personal income tax grew by 9 per cent, sources said.The sources said the governmentwas, however, committed to keeping the fiscal deficit at targeted 5.6 per cent of GDP by stepping up revenue collections through a drive against misuse of Modvat scheme and stepping up collection of tax arrears."There is a lot of fudging of Modvat scheme and we won't allow this to go on,'' the sources said adding the Central Board of Excise and Customs has convened a special meeting of chief commissioners on Monday for this purpose. There was large scale fraud on Modvat scheme and the revenue department would take stringent action against offenders, the sources said.The sources were also confident that excise collections from small scale industries would look up now onwards as most of them would have exhausted the Rs 50 lakh excise duty exemption limit by September. The limit was raised from Rs 30 to Rs 50 lakh this year as part of the package of incentives announced to the SSI sector in the budget.The buoyancy in direct collections was significant especially when they had posted a negative 15.5 percent growth in 1996-97 as compared to the previous year. The growth was a mere 0.5 per cent during April to October 1997 when compared with the previous year. During April-October this year the growth was 19 per cent with corporate tax accounting for 31.7 per cent and personal income tax, nine per cent. The sources said the Kar Vivadh Samadhan Scheme launched in September to mop up tax arrears locked up in litigations is expected to yield at least Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 crore.This confidence came from the fact that several chartered accountants themselves were recommending to the corporate clients to avail of this one time scheme which would end on December this year, the sources said.As much as Rs 52,000 crore of tax arrears are locked up in litigations in as many as 5.5 lakh cases. While Rs 42,000 crore by way of direct tax and Rs 10,000 crore indirect tax arrears. Of these Rs 20,000 crore direct tax and Rs 10,000 crore indirect tax arrears came under the purview of the scheme.
