The Hindu Business Line : Customs collection target in sight; excise may be hit

THE Government's decision to bet high on growth in volume of imports to meet its Customs duty collections target for 2003-04 appears to be paying rich dividends.

Up to January 31, 2004 the Centre has mobilised Rs 40,240 crore through Customs duties, said the Minister of State for Finance, Mr Sripad Y. Naik.

If one were to go by the current trend, the Centre is well on course to meeting the Budgeted target of Rs 49,350 crore for the fiscal. Collection in January alone stood at Rs 4,005 crore compared to Rs 3,939 crore last year.

In the recent interim Budget, the Finance Ministry had refrained from revising the Budget estimate of Rs 49,350 crore even though the peak rate of Customs duty was brought down by five per cent and the four per cent special additional duty (SAD) was abolished in early January this year.

"Despite the cuts, we will meet the target. The Budget estimates were not revised at the time of the interim Budget.

"The growth in volumes of imports is helping us in meeting the target," said a top Finance Ministry official. According to Mr Naik, the collections up to January 31, 2004 represent an 8.49 per cent increase over the Rs 37,092 crore achieved in the corresponding previous period.

The picture however does not appear to be all that bright on the excise front, with senior officials from the revenue department privately admitting that it would be a "tough task" for the Government to achieve the revised estimates.

The overall buoyancy in tax collections notwithstanding, the Centre had pegged the revised estimate in the interim Budget at Rs 92,379 crore, Rs 4,412 crore lower than the Budget target of Rs 96,791 crore.

Collections up to January 31, 2004 stood at Rs 71,505 crore, reflecting a 9.77 per cent growth over Rs 65,138 crore earlier.

Collections in January 2004 stood at Rs 8,360 crore.

At the time of the interim Budget, Finance Ministry officials had held that the lower-than-expected growth in the petroleum sector had impacted the excise collections and prompted the downward revision.

"There has been no appreciable change in the growth trend in excise collections from the petroleum sector in the current month, but we are hopeful of meeting the revised target. We have also increased our audits," said a Revenue department official.

Against the Budgeted growth rate of 24 per cent from the sector, the actual growth rate till January this year has been only around 10.76 per cent.

Direct tax collections surge

Aided by huge jump in corporation tax collections, the Centre has mobilised Rs 70,593 crore towards direct tax collections up to February 15, 2004 compared to Rs 56,615 crore in the corresponding previous period.

The collection represents 68.4 per cent of the Budgeted amount of Rs 1,03,255 crore for the year.

Corporation tax collections for the period till February 15, 2004 stood at Rs 40,034 crore, an increase of Rs 10,414 crore.

Personal income-tax collections stood at Rs 30,559 crore, a rise of Rs 3,564 crore.

The revised estimate for corporation collection is Rs 62,986 crore.

For personal income-tax, the revised estimate has been pegged at Rs 40,269 crore.

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