Commercial tax collection up 20 per cent

The collection of commercial taxes in Orissa surged by 20.25 percent in February 2010 over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

The February collection stood at Rs 581.98 crore, up from Rs 483.95 crore a year ago.

Healthy growth of 17.5 percent in the collection of value added tax (VAT), 25.6 percent in Central Sales Tax (CST) and 35.49 percent in entry tax helped the government to reach this target. However, the overall growth rate of 20.25 per cent is lower than 23.02 percent growth achieved in the previous month, sources said.

The cumulative growth of commercial tax collection during Apr-February of the current fiscal improved marginally to 11.02 percent from 9.93 percent recorded in the first ten months of the year. The collection of VAT in the first eleven months of 2009-10 stood at Rs 398.34 crore, up by 13.83 per cent from the corresponding figure of Rs 349.93 crore in the previous fiscal. Similarly, the collection of entry tax increased by 11.65 percent to Rs 614.05 crore from Rs 550 crore, professional tax collection increased by 24.59 percent to Rs 92.7 crore.