The Centre’s indirect tax collections grew 39.1 per cent in July, providing some comfort to the government that is facing political hurdles in implementing the goods and services tax (GST) system in the country.
Tax buoyancy continued on all the three taxes – excise, customs and service tax – for the month under review despite the economy growing below potential so far this fiscal.
Indirect tax revenues in July stood at ₹56,739 crore, a 39.1 per cent increase over collection level of ₹40,802 crore in same month last year.
While excise duty collections grew 64.8 per cent to ₹22,273 crore (₹13,512 crore), customs revenues recorded 23.2 per cent increase to ₹18,996 crore (₹15,419 crore).
Service tax collections surged 30.3 per cent in July 2015 to ₹15,470 crore (₹11,871 crore).
For the April-July period, the Centre’s indirect tax collections grew 37.6 per cent to ₹2,10,455 crore (₹1,52,896 crore).
This revenue collection level represents an achievement of 36.6 per cent of the Budget estimate target of ₹6,46,267 crore for 2015-16.
Excise collections in April-July grew by a whopping 75.4 per cent to ₹83,454 crore (₹47,579 crore).