Tax collections have significantly increased, says Jaitley

Highlighting the impact the 'currency squeeze', as a result of demonetisation, has had on revenue collection in the country in the months of November and December last year, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said that collection figures have moved up in all states.

"The big picture is that the Direct Tax collections have moved up. The Indirect Tax collections have also significantly increased," Jaitley told a press conference here.

The Finance Minister, who presented the revenue collection data report for the past two months, said the Direct Tax collections are 12.01 percent more than the collections for the corresponding period last year for the first three quarters of the ongoing financial year - from April, 2016, to December, 2016. This collection, the report says, is 65.3 percent of the total Budget Estimates of Direct Taxes for F.Y. 2016-17.

Jaitley said, "The Direct Taxes include the corporation tax, the personal tax and the likes -- all taken together."

The collections under advance tax stand at Rs 2.82 lakh crore, which is 14.4 percent higher than the figures for the corresponding period of last year. CIT advance tax is growing at 10.6 percent while PIT advance tax has registered a growth of 38.2 percent.

"Since Direct Taxes are payable in four installments, what is significant in this regard is the Indirect Tax. The Indirect Tax collection figures (Central Excise, Service Tax and Customs) up to December 2016 show that collections are exactly 25 percent more than of the corresponding period last year," he added.

Till December 2016, about 81 percent of the Budget Estimates of Indirect Taxes for Financial Year 2016-17 were achieved.

The Central Excise collections stood at Rs 2.79 lakh crore registering a growth of 43 percent during April-December last year as compared to the corresponding period in the previous fiscal year.

Net Tax collections on account of Service Tax stood at Rs 1.83 lakh crore, thereby registering a growth of 23.9 percent, while for Customs, the collections stood at Rs 1.67 lakh crore and registered a growth of 4.1 percent.

During December 2016, the growth rate in collection for Customs and Service Tax was 6.3 percent and 12.4 percent respectively. The decrease in customs collections can be accounted on the basis of a decline of gold imports.

"If the figures of December are compared with that of November, the Indirect Tax growth in December was 12.8 percent," added Jaitley.

Responding to a poser about the recent tussle between the banks and petrol pump associations over the new one percent transaction fee proposal, Jaitley assured of a prompt action.

"We're discussing the issue. I have asked the secretary of the Department of Economic Affair to discuss the matter with banks. Petroleum Minister is also in touch with banks," he said.

Petrol pump dealers and associations have been protesting against banks' move of levying one percent transaction charge on the use of credit and debit card (MDR) on them instead of consumers. They had decided to stop accepting debit card or credit card payments at the petrol stations, which was later put off till January 13.