Indirect Tax collections grow 35.8% to Rs 3.24 lakh crore in Apr-Sept period

Indirect tax collections grew 35.8 percent to Rs 3.24 lakh crore during April-September period of current fiscal as compared to Rs 2.38 lakh crore during the same period of previous financial year, reflecting growth in the economic activity and hitting more than 50% of the annual target. Indirect taxes include customs duty, central excise duty and service tax. The collection reflects hike in excise duty on diesel and petrol, withdrawal of exemptions for motor vehicles, increase in clean energy cess and hike in service tax rate in June.

Bulk of the growth in the indirect taxes has been contributed by central excise duty collection which grew 69.6 percent to Rs 1.25 lakh crore during the first six months of current fiscal against Rs 74,019 crore in the same period last fiscal. Besides, customs collections rose 17.5 percent to over Rs. 1.03 lakh crore during April-September period against Rs 89,324 crore in the same period year ago. Service tax collections grew 24.3 percent to Rs 95,493 crore during the April-Sept period.

During September, indirect tax collections grew by 32.6 percent to Rs 61,284 crore against Rs 46,224 crore during same period last year. Excise duty collections in September increased by 68.4 per cent to Rs. 22,489 crore, whereas custom duty collections grew by 3.4 percent to Rs 18,312 crore. Service tax collections in September rose by 35.1 per cent to Rs. 20,483 crore against Rs 15,158 crore in the same month of last fiscal.

Tax collection is the major source of revenue for the government. The government has budgeted to collect over Rs 6.47 lakh crore from indirect taxes in the current fiscal, a growth of 18.8 per cent over last fiscal.