Indirect tax collections grow by 36.8% in October

NEW DELHI: Indirect tax collections grew by 36.8% in October led by a massive over 66% increase in excise duty collections.

“These collections continue to suggest a healthy growth in the underlying tax base,” said a finance ministry statement on Monday.

Collections increased to Rs 58,691 crore from Rs 42,897 crore in October 2014. According to the data released by the ministry, April-October 2015 collections increased by 35.9% over the same period last year.

Overall, in monetary terms, the indirect tax revenue collections increased to Rs 3.82 lakh crore crore during April-October 2015 from Rs 2.81 lakh crore in April-October 2014.

Targeted growth rate for indirect taxes collections in 2015-16 is 18.8%. The higher growth will help meet likely shortfall in direct tax collection and disinvestment receipts.

Collections on account of central excise increased to Rs1.47 lakh crore in April-October 2015 from Rs 87,588 crore in April-October 2014, an increase of 68.6 %. In case of service tax collections increased to Rs 1.12 lakh crore in April-October 2015 from Rs 89,379 crore in April-October 2014, a jump of 26.1%.

Collections on account of customs increased from Rs 1.22 lakh crore in April-October 2015 from Rs 1.04 lakh crore in April-October 2014, a rise of 16.8%. These collections reflect in part increase due to additional measures taken by the Government from time to time, including the excise increases on diesel and petrol, the increase in clean energy cess, the withdrawal of exemptions for motor vehicles, capital goods and consumer durables, and from June 2015, the increase in Service Tax rates from 12.36% to 14%.

Stripped of all these additional measures indirect tax collections increased 11.6% during April-October 2015 as compared to April-October 2014.