Indirect Tax Collections Hiked by 41% Due to Central Excise Gush

The first month of the fiscal year 2016-17, April has shown an increase of indirect tax collections by 41% to Rs. 64,394 crore. The major reason behind this hike is due to a sharp central excise gush.

Last months’ records shot up the central excise collections by 70% to Rs. 28,252 as compared to Rs. 16,546 in the previous year, tweets Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia.

“Provisional revenue figures for indirect tax for April 16 is Rs 64,394 crores which is a 41% growth over April 15 (Rs 45,417 crore),” Adhia tweeted.

While keeping aside all the extra source mobilisation standards, the indirect tax mop-up uplifted by 17% in April.

A growth of 22 percent has been perceived as custom earnings for the month of April this year, enhanced up to Rs. 17,495 crore from the respective year-ago period with Rs. 14,286 crore. Service tax growth recorded is 27 percent, which rose up to Rs. 18,647 crore this year against last years’ Rs. 14,585 crore.

As per Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance, the epic growth in indirect tax collections is “excellent”. “Excellent provisional figures (Rs 64,394 crore) for indirect taxes in Apr 16 – central excise up by 70% customs by 22%, & service tax by 27% over Apr 15!,” he tweeted.

The projected net tax collections estimated by the Union Budget 2016 were Rs. 10.54 lakh crore, from which the indirect ones (that reflects the activities of production and trade in the country) were reckoned to be Rs. 7.79 lakh crore.

Nevertheless, the government was tight-lipped about giving the details of the direct tax collections. As per the stats, the graph of direct tax collections has dropped down of the revised budget estimate for 2015-16 whereas the indirect tax collections have displayed quite an impressive figure over the last fiscal year.

Due to the improved indirect tax collections in the last fiscal year, the GDP ratio has been pushed up to near by 5.17 percent as that of 4.36 percent in 2014-15. the ministry says, the indirect tax to GDP ratio for the year 2016-17 is approximately 5.20 percent.

Mentioning the provisional estimates, the rise in indirect tax collections for the 2015-16 are recorded as Rs. 7.12 lakh crore, while the figure counted for the previous financial year was Rs. 5.43 lakh crore. By far, the total tax collections were Rs. 14.54 lakh crore in 2015-16 against Rs. 12.39 lakh crore in the preceding year.

The financial 2016 have shown a serious drop down in the all-India direct tax collections from the revised tax target of Rs. 7,52,021 crore by nearly Rs. 18000 crore. In February, the Centre had diminished its direct tax target by Rs. 45,974 crore for the year 2015-16 to Rs. 7,52,021 crore.

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