Indirect tax collection falls short of target in Odisha

Reflecting slump in the manufacturing activity due to closure of mines in the state, indirect tax mop-up has declined in last fiscal, mainly on account of drop in Central excise revenue.

Central excise revenue collection was Rs 3125 crore against the target of Rs 4250 crore in last fiscal. This is the maximum decline among all the segments of revenue collection. Year on year basis the collection has come down by 21.14 per cent (Rs  838 crore).

The revenue collection in indirect tax bracket in 2013-14 was Rs  8017 crore, missing the target of Rs  8700 crore fixed for the period under review.

Service tax collection from about 6000 registered assessee has clocked Rs  1764 crore during the 2013-14 and the Customs mop-up was Rs  3128 crore, surpassing the target of Rs 2500 crore.

“There is dip in Central excise duty collection due to the slump in manufacturing sector. The closure of mines has affected the raw material supply to iron and steel industries affecting their production”, said SK Panda Chief Commissioner, Central Excise, Customs and Service tax, Bhubaneswar zone.

This zone has jurisdiction to collect indirect taxes in the whole of state.

The officials of the Chief Commissioner’s office maintained that the service tax collection and Customs revenues have registered a growth of 29 per cent and 44 per cent respectively against the amount collected in 2012-13.

In 2012-13, the indirect tax revenue stood at Rs  7512 crore which included Customs collection of Rs 2177.98 crore, Central excise of Rs 3963.60 crore and service tax of Rs 1370.95 crore.

For preventing the leakage of Central excise and service tax revenue, anti-evasion drives and audits were carried out during the period under review.The raids conducted resulted in detection of fifty six cases of service tax evasion involving duty amount of Rs 28.84 crore and 17 cases of Central excise evasion amounting to Rs 10.46 crore.

Panda said, two city based companies namely East Coast Construction and Rukmani Infrastructure have evaded tax to the tune of Rs 18 crore.

Similarly the audit of the manufacturers and the service providers conducted by the department has detected a tax evasion of Rs 502 crore in Central excise and service tax, out of which Rs 30 crore have been recovered.