Customs duty collections up 29.5% to Rs 19,753cr in Apr-July. | |
| The revenue department has decided to increase the internal target for customs duty collections by Rs 7,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore for 2005-06. |
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| The overall target of Rs 1,92,215 crore from indirect taxes for 2005-06 would also be increased internally by Rs 5,000 crore, after factoring in a shortfall of around Rs 2,000 crore, owing to lower excise duty collections. |
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| Government officials said the decision to revise the internal targets was taken after assessing the revenue situation with the chief commissioners of customs, excise and service tax. |
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| Officials also said the mop-up from customs was higher on account of the increase imports of raw materials, capital goods and intermediates. Customs duty collections increased by 29.5 per cent to Rs 19,753 crore during April-July 2005. During the same period, imports also rose 36.36 per cent to $42.90 billion. |
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| On the other hand, during the period, excise collections were up 5.6 per cent to Rs 30,000 crore, mainly owing to a lower mop-up from the petroleum sector, as well as the companies availing cenvat credit in large numbers. |
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| Officials said the department would also soon finalise the indirect tax arrear collection target for the current fiscal. "The arrear collection target would be lower than the level of Rs 3,000 crore last year as the value of realisable arrears was less. While the excise arrear target had been fixed at Rs 1,250 crore, the target for customs was yet to be finalised," officials said. |
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| As per data available with the finance ministry, the total amount involved in the cases pending before various courts and tribunals in the last three years was Rs 21,413 crore. |
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| Officials said the improved arrear collection was on account of an improvement in audit performance over the last five years. During the first quarter of this year, both deduction and spot recoveries made by audit registered a growth, although the number of audits conducted declined marginally by around 7 per cent. |
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| Total detection was Rs 224.88 crore during April-June, of which the total recovery was Rs 28.42 crore, an increase of 40 per cent over the same period in the previous year. |
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| Officials pointed out that this year the director general (audit) had submitted a list of 325 assessees for detailed cenvat verification. |
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| The units had been selected in two lots, one consisting of units from five evasion-prone commodities including steel, plastics, plywood, ghutka and ceramic tiles, and other consisting of units from all other industries. |
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