• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Mr P.C. Jha

K. R .Srivats

Faridabad, Sept. 19 The depreciation of rupee against the dollar in the recent months may be of concern for importers of capital goods and essential items, but it is proving to be bonanza for the revenue department, which expects its customs duty collections to be bolstered by this exchange rate gyration.

“There has been almost 20 per cent depreciation in rupee against the dollar from about Rs 39 to Rs 47 during the recent months. This will certainly boost customs revenues. But the rupee movement is not the only deciding factor on our meeting the budget target,” Mr P.C. Jha, Chairman of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said at the National Academy of Customs, Excise & Narcotics (NACEN) here on Friday.

He was here to preside over a function held to formally induct the 58th batch of Indian Revenue Service (customs and central excise) to the regular service of the Government.

The CBEC Chairman maintained that the indirect tax collections target for 2008-09 was likely to be achieved in totality. He however declined to comment on the aspect of achieving targets set for each of the taxes — excise duty, customs duty and service tax.

“As per the situation available at this moment, we are likely to achieve the budget target for indirect taxes. I am saying this as total. That is the responsibility of the department, that by the end of March 2009, our revenue collection figure should be Rs 3.2 lakh crore”, he said.

Mr Jha maintained that the sluggish growth in customs duty collections in July and August was “temporary” and pointed out that collections were impacted by a number of factors including the Gujjar agitation. He expects imports to pick up in November.

“Customs revenues fall during monsoon time. Rains create problems in loading and unloading of cargo in the ships.

“The main revenue for us comes from the ports and not so much from air cargo. Some of the ports are in such zones where the rainfall is high”, he noted.

Meanwhile, the CBEC plans to put in place, during October this year, a third-party reporting system on excise duty to generate intelligence on transactions involving duty evasion. Already, on the direct tax side, third-party information is reported through annual information return (AIR) filed with the tax department.

More Stories on : Forex | Excise and Customs

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line