Even as customs and excise duty collections dipped, the Finance Ministry has managed to collect over 18 per cent of the Budget target for indirect taxes during the first three months (April-June) of the current fiscal.
Indirect taxes include customs duty, central excise duty and service tax.
However, the growth rate in tax collection is still way behind the targeted rate.
The Budget aims to mobilise ₹6.23 lakh crore in 2014-15, which requires a growth rate of 20 per cent over 2013-14. But collections in April-June stood at ₹1.14 lakh crore, showing a growth of 4.5 per cent over ₹1.09 lakh crore collected during April-June in the previous fiscal.
Ministry officials said usually there was not much buoyancy in tax collections during the first three months, but with improvement in manufacturing activities as well as progress of the monsoon, the tax mop-up was likely to improve.
Excise boostThe silver lining is that excise duty collection is now in the positive zone after contracting in the last two months, the officials said, exuding confidence over meeting the target.