Govt likely to revise tax collection targets upwards

KOLKATA: The government is likely to revise revenue collection targets upwards for the current financial year, a top government official said.

"We are likely to make modest advancements in the targets as we have entered the third quarter. We will wait for a few days and then take a decision," Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra told PTI here.

Mitra, who was in the city yesterday to attend a meeting of the revenue officials of eastern zone along with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, said that direct tax collection achieved so far was 69 per cent of target and indirect tax collection at 67 per cent of target.

"We are hopeful of meeting the targets", Mitra said. Against a target of Rs 4,30,000 crore for direct tax collection, revenue collected so far was Rs 2,96,121 crore.

For indirect taxes, it was Rs 1,98,540 crore against the target of Rs 3,15,000 crore.

Chairman of Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) Sumit Dutt Majumdar said that there had been good growth in customs revenue collection.

Customs revenue was growing at 67 per cent, he said. Majumdar said that this reflected the pick up in manufacturing activity which had been a result of the stimulus packages.

He said that good customs growth meant that imports were taking place substantially.

Majumdar said that central excise was growing at 34 per cent and service tax at 18 per cent.

M C Joshi, member CBDT, said that direct tax was growing at 18 per cent to 20 per cent.