April-August indirect tax collections grow over 36 percent

India is well on course to meet its indirect tax collection target for the current fiscal that grew over 36 percent for August as well as cumulatively for the April-August period to over Rs.263,000 crore.

As per official data released on Wednesday, August indirect tax collections increased by 36.7 percent compared with the same month last year.

"Cumulatively, in April-August 2015 indirect tax collections increased by 36.5 percent over the same period last year, while, the asking rate for 2015-16 is 18.8 percent," the finance ministry said in a release here.

For April-August, excise duty collections stood at over Rs.102,000 crore, customs at Rs.85,138 crore and service tax at Rs.75,006 crore.

"The GDP and indirect tax numbers seem to suggest that directionally economy is recovering," chief economic adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian told reporters here.

"When tax collections are growing at over double digits, it suggests that the underlying tax base or the nominal GDP seems to be healthy and moving upwards," he said.

The indirect tax collections also reflect the hike in excise duty on diesel and petrol, withdrawal of exemptions for motor vehicles, the increase in clean energy cess and the hike in service tax rate.

Subramanian said that minus these measures, the April-August tax collections grew at 12.2 percent, which "continues to suggest a healthy growth in the underlying tax base".

The government has set the target of collecting over Rs.647,000 crore from indirect taxes in this fiscal.