Indirect tax collection jumps 34% in Apr-Nov

Buoyed by 34 per cent jump in indirect taxes during April-November this fiscal, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia today said government may exceed the collection target from customs, excise and service tax, and thus make up for the "likely shortfall" on the direct taxes.
Indirect tax collection jumped 34.3 per cent to Rs 4,38,291 crore during April-November period of the fiscal as against Rs 3,26,273 crore in the year ago period.
So far, the indirect tax -- Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax -- collection is 67.8 per cent of the budget estimates (BE) for 2015-16.
"We hope to meet the budget target of indirect tax, and we may surpass it also. This would help us in meeting likely shortfall of revenue target in direct tax," Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said in a series of tweets.

The government aims to collect Rs 6.46 lakh crore from indirect taxes this fiscal and Rs 7.97 lakh crore from direct taxes (like corporate tax and income tax).
During the eight-month period, the excise collection surged by 67.1 per cent to Rs 1,70,693 crore from Rs 1,02,139 crore in April-November period of last year, a finance ministry statement said.

These collections are partly due to additional measures such as excise duty increases on diesel and petrol, higher clean energy cess, withdrawal of exemptions for motor vehicles, capital goods and consumer durables and an increase in service tax rate to 14 per cent from the earlier 12.36 per cent.

Adhia added that if "we remove additional taxes raised" during year, the growth in indirect taxes is 10.3 per cent.
At the same time, customs collection rose by 14.7 per cent to Rs 1,39,923 crore compared with Rs 1,22,016 crore in the same period a year ago, it said.
Service tax collection increased by 25 per cent to Rs 1,27,675 crore during the period as against Rs 1,02,118 crore.
During November, excise collection jumped by a whopping 58.3 per cent to Rs 23,033 crore in November 2015, from Rs 14,551 crore in the same month last fiscal.
However, customs collection rose marginally by 1.7 per cent to Rs 17,475 crore during the month under review compared with Rs 17,185 crore in November 2014, it said.

Service tax collection increased by 16.1 per cent to Rs 14,789 crore as against Rs 12,739 crore in the same month a year ago.