Indirect tax collections up 42 pc in April-October

NEW DELHI: The government kitty swelled by Rs1.80 lakh crore as indirect tax collections recorded a jump of 42 per cent during the first seven months of the current fiscal.

This could also be indicative of a pick up in industrial growth momentum from next month.

"Total revenue collections from the indirect taxes at all India level during April-October stood at Rs1,80,261 crore, which is 57.5 per cent of the budget estimates of 2010-11," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

Revenue collections from Customs jumped 65.9 per cent to Rs75,349 crore as against the year-ago period.

Mop up from central excise rose to Rs71,078 crore in April-October 2010, an increase of 36.2 per cent.

The high tax collections from these two heads show that the industry is on expansion mode and abysmally low figure in August and September may well prove to be an aberration.

Industrial growth plunged to a 16-month low of 4.4 per cent in September. In August it expanded by 6.92 per cent.

Earlier in the day, Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu exuded confidence that industry would gather steam from next month.

"The (IIP) data that you will get on December 12 (for October) should see a reasonably good recovery," Basu said.

So far as services sector is concerned it fetched revenue of Rs 33,833 crore in the first seven months of current fiscal, up by 16.9 per cent.

Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra had earlier hoped the government will surpass tax collection target of Rs 7.45 lakh crore this fiscal.

Hit by stimulus packages, that include tax cuts, given to spur up the economy impacted by the global financial meltdown, tax collections took a beating last fiscal.

Tax mop up fell short of the target of Rs 6.41 lakh crore in 2009-10.