Indirect tax collection grows at modest 4.7% in first quarter

22 Jul 2013 Evaluate

Indirect tax collection during April-June quarter of current fiscal grew by mere 4.7% to Rs 1.11 lakh crore, mainly on account of decline in excise duty collection. Last year the collections stood at Rs1.05 lakh crore in the corresponding period. However, the overall indirect tax collection stood at Rs 39,550 crore, up 6.7%, in the month of June. The figures are likely to worry the government which has envisaged a growth of 19% in the Budget for the full 2013-14 fiscal to Rs 5.65 lakh crore, up from Rs 4.73 lakh crore collected in 2012-13.

The numbers for the first quarter are also indicating towards the precarious condition of the manufacturing sector, as the Excise collection dropped 4.9% during the quarter over Rs 37,600 crore, while the Customs duty collection was up just 6.9% to over Rs 40,800 crore during the quarter under review. Excise duty collection for June stood at Rs 13,980 crore as compared to Rs 13,849 crore in June 2012-13. Growth in industrial production has slowed to 0.1% in the first two months of the fiscal beginning April, as against 0.6% due to high borrowing cost, decline in demand and stalled investments in the year ago period and its impact was clearly visible with the modest growth of indirect taxes during the first quarter of the current fiscal.

However, some solace came from the Service tax collection, which grew by 15.2% to Rs 32,500 crore during the first quarter. Service tax collection stood at Rs 12,076 crore, up 14.8% during the month of June. With an aim to widen the service tax net, the government during the last fiscal introduced the concept of negative list of taxation, as per it all services except those in the negative list are taxable. To further increase the collection the revenue department is targeting 12 lakh non-filers and stop-filers of service tax to meet the annual target of Rs1.81 lakh crore collection from this segment during this fiscal. Service tax accounts for one-third of the total indirect tax collection in the country and the government expects to raise Rs 1.8 lakh crore through the levy this fiscal.

© 2026 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×