Punjab to garner Rs 9,600 cr in VAT this FY

The Punjab government expects to garner Rs 9,600 crore in value-added tax (VAT) during 2010-11(budget estimates). In this financial year, the state government is hopeful that it would be able to collect Rs 8,000 crore, which would be about 18 per cent growth over the last financial year.

The state is also targeting to garner an excise revenue of Rs 2,000 crore in 2009-10 and Rs 2,520 crore in 2010-11. Sources added that this could be possible only because of rationalisation of tax structure besides checking the leakage. The state was also streamlining the revenue collection machinery besides blocking the loopholes to boost the revenue growth in the state.

Already having collected Rs 6,200 crore under VAT as on December 31, the government expects that it would be able to collect Rs 8,000 crore by this fiscal year which would be about 18 per cent more than the last fiscal year

In January 2010, the state increased VAT from 4 per cent to 5 per cent as already done in the neighboring states.