Indirect tax collection grows by 34% in Apr-Nov period

New Delhi: Reflecting improvement in industrial activities, indirect tax collection jumped 34.3 percent to Rs 4,38,291 crore during the first eight months of current financial year.

The government had collected Rs 3,26,273 crore from indirect taxes during April-November period of last fiscal.

So far, the collection is 67.8 percent of budget estimates (BE) for 2015-16.

As per the Budget Estimate 2015-16, the government aims to collect Rs 6.46 lakh crore from indirect taxes -- central excise, customs and service tax.

During the eight-month period, the excise collection surged by 67.1 per cent to Rs 1,70,693 crore from Rs 1,02,139 crore in April-November period of last year, a finance ministry statement said.

These collections are partly due to additional measures such as excise increases on diesel and petrol, higher clean energy cess, withdrawal of exemptions for motor vehicles, capital goods and consumer durables and an increase in service tax rate to 14 per cent from the earlier 12.36 per cent.

At the same time, customs collection rose by 14.7 per cent to Rs 1,39,923 crore compared with Rs 1,22,016 crore in the same period a year ago, it said.

Service tax collection increased by 25 percent to Rs 1,27,675 crore during the period as against Rs 1,02,118 crore.

During November, excise collection jumped by a whopping 58.3 per cent to Rs 23,033 crore in November 2015, from Rs 14,551 crore in the same month last fiscal.

However, customs collection rose marginally by 1.7 per cent to Rs 17,475 crore during the month under review compared with Rs 17,185 crore in November 2014, it said.

Service tax collection increased by 16.1 per cent to Rs 14,789 crore as against Rs 12,739 crore in the same month a year ago.