Commercial tax collection surges 22%

The collection of commercial taxes in Orissa surged by 21.98 percent during December 2009 to Rs 497.14 crore, compared to Rs 407 crore in the corresponding month of the previous year.

This is the highest monthly growth rate of commercial taxes in the current fiscal.

Similarly, the cumulative growth of the commercial tax collection was 8.25 percent by the end of December 2009. The collections rose to Rs 3947.78 crore compared to Rs 3646.75 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

“With the state economy showing profound signs of revival, the commercial tax collection surged by 21.98 percent in December last year and the trend is likely to continue in the next couple of months”, a senior official of the state finance department told Business Standard.

Sources said, the state government, which collected Rs 5600 crore from commercial taxes last fiscal, hopes to get about Rs 6200 crore to Rs 6500 crore in the current fiscal. The collection of value added tax (VAT) increased by 12.87 percent during the first nine months of the current fiscal to Rs 3088 crore.

The collection of Central Sales Tax (CST), however, declined by 19.93 percent to Rs 318.5 crore. While the entry tax collections increased by 5.4 percent to Rs 468 crore, professional tax collections went up by 22.16 percent to Rs 71.5 crore.

Though the collections from the big dealers in the state remained unimpressive for the first nine months of the fiscal, the picture was encouraging in the last month. The payment of VAT and CST by various companies recorded impressive growth in December. As per the official figures, the payment of VAT by the public sector Nalco at Angul increased by impressive 393 percent in December last compared to the same month in the previous year. It increased from Rs 11.98 crore to Rs 59.17 crore. The payment of CST by the company at Bhubaneswar also grew by 47.02 percent from Rs 2.48 crore to Rs 3.65 crore.

Similarly, the collection of VAT and CST from Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) increased by 39.51 percent at Angul and 15.28 percent at Jharsuguda. While payments of VAT by the Orissa State Beverages Corporation (OSBC) increased by 48.25 percent, the same for Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Hindusthan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) went up by 11.47 percent in December, sources added.