Indirect tax collection up 10.4% in April

Aided by 2 percentage point increase in excise duty, the Centre's indirect tax collections grew 10.4 per cent in April to Rs 33,045 crore (Rs 29,936 crore). While excise duty collections grew 17.8 per cent at Rs 12,605 crore (Rs 10,698 crore), service tax collections recorded 35.59 per cent increase to Rs 8,846 crore (Rs 6,524 crore), the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairman, Mr S.K. Goel, said. However, customs duty collections declined to Rs 11,594 crore (Rs 12,714 crore). The collections were lower mainly due to higher duty drawback claims and also on account of petro product duty changes in June last year. The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, had in Budget 2012-13 hiked both excise and service tax rates by 2 percentage points as part of the fiscal consolidation efforts. The excise duty hike came into effect from March 17. For 2011-12, in the case of indirect tax collections, the Centre had achieved 99.6 per cent of the Budget estimate, Mr Goel said.