Confident of meeting target: CBEC

Notwithstanding a slowdown in economic growth, the government on Monday exuded confidence that it would meet the indirect tax collection target of over Rs 4 lakh-crore for the current fiscal.

“I am an optimist,” said Central Board of Excise and Customs chairman S K Goel. “For the year, I think we will able to achieve our target of Rs 4,00,635 crore,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry meet here.

On whether the gross domestic product (GDP) slowdown was disturbing, Goel said he was worried. “I think 7.5 per cent GDP growth should take care of our targets.” The Indian economy grew by over a two-year low of 6.9 per cent in the July-September period of this fiscal.

For the first half of 2011-12, the economic growth turned out to be 7.3 per cent.

The finance ministry has pegged this year’s economic growth at around 7.5 per cent, which will be lowest in three years.

For the first seven months of the current fiscal, the indirect tax collection has gone up 18.5 per cent to Rs 2.21 lakh-crore. This is 55.3 per cent of the Budget estimate for 2011-12.

The indirect tax collection was Rs 1.86 lakh crore in the corresponding period of 2010-11.

The government has fixed an indirect taxes collection target of over Rs 4 lakh-crore compared to Rs 3.38 lakh crore last fiscal.