Govt needs Rs 73k cr from indirect taxes to meet RE

Excise duty bolsters collections, service tax, excise duty drag it down

The government will have to collect Rs 63,000 crore from indirect tax collections in March to meet the revised tax projections for FY15. Till February, the government has collected Rs 4.78 lakh crore against projections of Rs 5.41 lakh crore in the revised estimates (RE) for FY15.

Indirect tax collections in February stood at Rs 50,464 crore, a 15.9 per cent increase over Rs 43,453 crore in the same month of 2014.

Both customs duty and services tax collections were muted in February. While services tax mop-up grew 3.5 per cent at Rs 12,646 crore in February against Rs 12,221 crore in the same month last year, customs duty fetched the exchequer Rs 15,695 crore, up only 3. 9 per cent over Rs 15,109 crore.

However, excise duty collections were higher by 36.5 per cent at Rs 22,123 crore in February 2015 against Rs 16,213 crore a year ago. Excise duty on petrol and diesel was raised in four phases; this was expected to give the government additional Rs 20,000 crore during the November-March period of FY15.

According to data released earlier this month, the government was still to collect Rs 2 lakh crore in March to meet the direct tax collections target. This means, total taxes would have to give the government nearly Rs 2.73 lakh crore to meet the revised target, fixed for 2014-15 in the RE. This is required to help the Centre meet a target of reining in its fiscal deficit at 4.1 per cent of the GDP. Almost a third of the tax collections will go to the states as part of devolution.