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New Delhi , Sept. 10

THE Centre's excise and customs revenue collections have registered a 7 per cent increase during the first five months of the current fiscal, totalling Rs 51,461 crore as against Rs 48,095 crore in April-August 2002.

While excise collections went up by 7.02 per cent, from Rs 30,457 crore to Rs 32,596 crore, revenues from customs rose by 6.95 per cent, from Rs 17,638 crore to Rs 18,864 crore.

For 2003-04 as a whole, the Centre has budgeted gross revenues from excise at Rs 96,791 crore (10 per cent higher than the Rs 87,383 crore revised estimate for 2002-03) and that from customs at Rs 49,350 crore (up 8.5 per cent from the previous year's Rs 45,500 crore).

"Revenues have picked up well since July and we hope to achieve the targets set for the fiscal," Mr A.K. Singh, Chairman of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), told newspersons here today.

The 7 per cent growth in excise collections has come about despite the Budget bringing down duty rates from 32 per cent to 24 per cent on a host of big-tickets items, such as soft drinks, polyester filament yarn, motor cars, tyres and air-conditioners. Further, excise duties have been cut from 16 per cent to 8 per cent for biscuits, pressure cookers and confectionary items.

In the case of customs, Mr Singh said that the Revenue Department has had to forgo a total amount of Rs 16,128 crore during April-July alone against various export-promotion schemes. These include Rs 5,062 crore on Advance Licence Scheme (ALS), Rs 4,140 crore on Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme (DEPB), Rs 3,883 crore on Export Oriented Units (EoU), Rs 1,246 crore on duty drawback and Rs 1,052 crore on Export Promotion Capital Goods scheme (EPCG).

"I cannot see revenues in isolation to overall developments on the economic front. If exports are to be promoted, one has no alternative but to forego revenues on this count. Similarly, if customs duties are to be cut further in the coming years, we have to be prepared for the same and look at new avenues such as service tax," Mr Singh said. He said that service tax collections during April-July 2003 were informally estimated at roughly Rs 3,200 crore, compared to the revised estimate of Rs 5,000 crore for 2002-03 as a whole. The Centre has budgeted service tax revenues for the current fiscal at Rs 8,000 crore.

Mr Singh also drew attention to the fact that about 42 per cent of excise collections and over 45 per cent of customs revenues were being mobilised from the petroleum sector.

During August 2003, total excise collections amounted to Rs 7,028 crore (against Rs 6,413 crore for August 2002), while being Rs 3,951 crore (Rs 3,967 crore) for customs.

Mr Singh said that the customs department was planning to extend the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system to 12 more locations. Currently, 23 major customs locations, handling 75 per cent of the country's international trade, are covered under the system, which enables accurate duty calculation, electronic maintenance of records and screen-based processing by officers who take decisions on-line on menu driven screens and electronic crediting of drawback in exporters' bank accounts. "Once the 12 additional locations are included, the EDI system will cover 95 per cent of India's international trade," he added.

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