CBEC sure of meeting indirect tax collection target of over Rs 4 lakh crore

NEW DELHI: The government today said it is confident of achieving indirect tax collection target of over Rs 4 lakh crore for the current fiscal despite the slowdown in industrial activities.

"I am an optimist. For the year, I think we will able to achieve our target of Rs 4,00,635 crore," Central Board of Excise and Customs ( CBEC) Chairman S K Goel told reporters on the sidelines of a CII meet here.

Asked whether he is worried about slowdown in GDP, Goel said, "No, I am not worried. I think 7.5 per cent GDP growth should take care of our targets".

Confirming a slowdown, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday had said economic growth will moderate to about 7.5 per cent in the current fiscal, lower than the earlier projection of 9 per cent.

"I am confident that we will be covering some of the losses in our growth momentum and may end the year with over 7.5 per cent," Mukherjee had said while addressing the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit here.

For the first seven months of the current fiscal, the indirect tax collection has gone up 18.5 per cent to Rs 2.21 lakh crore, which is 55.3 per cent of the Budget estimate for 2011-12.

The indirect tax collection was Rs 1.86 lakh crore in the corresponding period of 2010-11.

The government has fixed an indirect taxes collection target of over Rs 4 lakh crore for the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), compared to Rs. 3.38 lakh crore last fiscal.

On draft paper on taxation of services based on a negative list, Goel said, "We are still getting feedback from industry on negative list. We will analyse feedbacks and the government will take decision".