Indirect tax collections jump over 39% in July 2015

India’s Indirect tax collections jumped by 39.1% in the month of July to Rs 56,739 crore, as compared to Rs 40,802 in the corresponding month of previous year, on account of sharp pick up in excise mop up, achieving 32.6 percent fixed for budget estimate (BE) 2015-16 i.e. Rs 64,6267 crore. Indirect tax collections increased even after adjusting for increase in duties on fuel and withdrawal of tax incentives for automobile, an evidence that the economic recovery may be picking up pace.

As per the data released by the Finance Ministry, in July the central excise collections surged by 64.8 percent to Rs 22,273 crore; customs duty rose by 23.2 percent to Rs 18,996 crore, while service tax revenues were up by 30.3 per cent to Rs 15,470 crore.

In the first four months of current financial year, Indirect tax collections surged by 37.6% to Rs 210455 crore as against 152896 crore during the similar period of the last financial year, on the back of higher excise collections.

During April-July, the excise collections jumped by 75.4 percent to Rs 83,454 crore, which was 36.6 per cent of the full year Budget estimate; Revenues from service tax rose by 20.1 percent to Rs 60,925 crore and Customs collections were up by 21 percent to Rs 66,076 crore, 32 per cent of what has been budgeted for the 2015-16 financial year.

The development has come following 17.47% rise in car sales in July, highest in three months and marking the ninth consecutive month of domestic sales growth providing evidence of improvement in consumer sentiment.