The Hindu Business Line : Excise duty collections up 2.1% in July

New Delhi, Aug. 14 The Centre’s excise duty collections grew 2.1 per cent in July 2007 to Rs 9,388 crore as compared with collections level of Rs 9,193 crore in the same month last year. The 2.1 per cent year-on-year growth in July 2007 is the lowest so far this fiscal.

In April-July 2007, excise duty collections grew 5.5 per cent to Rs 34,571 crore as compared with Rs 32,753 crore collected in the same period last year. In the first quarter of the current fiscal, excise duty collections had grown by 6.8 per cent. On the other hand, provisional figures available with the States show that revenues from items under value-added tax (VAT) grew about 24.6 per cent in April-June 2007.

The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, had recently acknowledged that there was high degree of excise duty evasion in certain sectors and indicated that the Revenue Department would give more thrust to “high impact” excise audits this fiscal.

He said that excise collections should normally mirror the growth trend in VAT.

The Centre has already asked State Governments to share information on state-level VAT collections with the Excise Department to help identify cases of excise duty evasion.

Meanwhile, customs duty revenues of the Centre continue to be buoyant, with collections in April-July 2007 up by 19.1 per cent to Rs 31,845 crore (Rs 26,742 crore). In July 2007, revenues grew by 16.8 per cent to Rs 8,253 crore (Rs 7,065 crore).

Service tax collections of the Centre increased by 37.90 per cent during April-June 2007 to Rs 10,012 crore (Rs 7,260 crore).

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