The Centre’s indirect tax collections have surpassed the revised estimate target of ₹7.04 lakh crore for 2015-16, CBEC Chairman Najib Shah has said.
“Against the revised estimate target of ₹7.04 lakh crore, we have already collected ₹7.09 lakh crore. We have surpassed revised estimates in each of the three indirect taxes – customs, excise and service tax,” he told reporters on Saturday.
Shah also admitted that the Centre’s move to raise excise duties on petroleum products – even as global crude oil prices had slumped – helped increase the excise duty collections.
“Definitely petroleum has helped,” Shah said when asked if series of excise duty hikes bolstered revenue collections.
As global crude oil prices plummeted from an average price of $100 per barrel to $35 in a span of a year, the Centre had not completely passed on this benefit to consumers.
It had, on the contrary, resorted to several rounds of excise duty hikes on petroleum products, leading to a sharp spike in excise duty collections.
In the recent Budget, the Centre had significantly revised upward the excise duty collections target for 2015-16 to ₹2.84 lakh crore.
This represented a 23.5 per cent increase over the Budget estimate of ₹2.30 lakh crore.
The revised estimate for customs and service tax was only marginally up.
While the customs duty collection target was revised upward to ₹2.10 lakh crore (Budget estimate of ₹2.08 lakh crore), service tax collection target was almost flat at ₹2.10 lakh crore (₹2.09 lakh crore).
For 2016-17, the Centre has pegged the Budget estimate of indirect taxes collections at ₹7.80 lakh crore – a 20 per cent increase over Budget estimate of ₹6.48 lakh crore for 2015-16.