Indirect tax kitty to fall short of Budget estimates

Amid speculations of partial roll back of stimulus in the upcoming Budget, a key Finance Ministry official said the government's kitty from indirect tax collections will fall short of the projected figures for this fiscal.

"There will be some shortfall (in meeting budget estimates of indirect tax collections)," a Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) official said on the sidelines of Excise Day function here.

However, he declined to give any further details, ahead of the Budget to be presented on Friday.

Indirect tax collections came under heavy impact as the government cut excise duty by 6 per cent, service tax by 2 per cent in phases since December, 2008 to provide stimulus to the slowing down economy.

As such, indirect tax kitty declined sharply by 12.42 per cent to revised estimates of Rs 2.81 lakh crore last fiscal against Budget estimates of Rs 3.21 lakh crore.

For this fiscal, Budget estimates were even lowered to Rs 2.69 lakh crore. Even these estimates seem to be missed when the current fiscal ends.

The government's indirect tax kitty has been able to net just Rs 1,89,000 crore up to January this fiscal, which means around Rs 80,000 crore is required to be collected in the remaining two months, which seems almost impossible.

Speculations are rife that stimulus may be partially rolled back to fetch revenues to the government and narrow down fiscal deficit, estimated to be 6.8 per cent of GDP this fiscal.