Indirect tax collections rise over 37 percent in April-July

India's indirect tax revenue in the first four months of the current fiscal (April-July) rose more than 37 percent to over Rs.201,000 crore, an official announcement said on Tuesday.

The indirect tax collections were at Rs.153,000 crore during the same period of the last fiscal.

Month on month, the July indirect tax collections grew by 39.1 percent over that recorded in the same period a year ago.

"Indirect tax revenue collections have increased from Rs.40,802 crore in July 2014 to Rs.56,739 crore during July 2015," a finance ministry statement said.

"Thus an increase of 39.1 percent has been registered during July 2015 over the corresponding period in the previous year," it added.

During the period in consideration, excise collections jumped by 75.4 percent to Rs.83,454 crore.

Revenues from service tax rose by 20.1 percent to Rs.60,925 crore, while that from customs duty jumped by 21 percent to Rs.66,076 crore.

As per the July data, central excise collections soared 64.8 percent to Rs.22,273 crore, customs duty rose by 23.2 percent to Rs.18,996 crore while service tax revenues were up by 30.3 percent to Rs.15,470 crore.

Also on Tuesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduced in the Rajya Sabha a constitutional amendment bill to enable the reform of India's indirect tax regime.

However, following protests by Congress MPs on the introduction of the GST Bill, the upper house was adjourned for the day by Deputy Chairman P.J.Kurien.

--Indo-Asian News Service

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