Budget 2012: FM hopeful to meet indirect tax collection target

New Delhi:  Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today expressed hope that indirect tax collection target of Rs 3.92 lakh crore for the current fiscal will be met despite the economic slowdown. “I am confident that the department (Central Board of Excise and Customs) would not spare any effort in meeting the target. In fact, already indications are there (of meeting budget estimate),” Mukherjee said while speaking at a ceremony to hand over Presidential Awards to the officers of Customs and Central Excise here. He said that despite challenges on the fiscal front, indirect tax collections have been good this fiscal so far. [caption id=“attachment_221512” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption="‘Indirect tax collections have been good this fiscal so far’ says Pranab Mukherjee"]  [/caption] “As we approach the end of current fiscal year, there are certain fiscal challenges that have to be addressed. The indirect tax collection figure up to January 2012 indicates that there has been some gains over the last year,” Mukherjee said. The government has fixed a target of Rs 3.92 lakh crore for indirect tax collection during 2011-12. Till January this fiscal, total collection of indirect taxes was Rs 3.17 lakh crore against Rs 2.75 lakh crore in the April-January period of last fiscal. As per Advanced Estimates, the economy is expected to grow at 6.9 per cent in the current fiscal, lower from 8.4 percent in the previous year. Despite this, in the first 10 month period of this fiscal, the CBEC has been able to achieve nearly 81 percent of Budget estimate for the current fiscal year. Speaking at the event, Finance Secretary R S Gujral also exuded confidence that the CBEC would cross revenue collection of Rs 4 lakh crore this fiscal. The service tax collection during April-January continued to be strong with a 37 percent growth to Rs 75,440 crore.  The excise collection jumped 6.8 percent to Rs 1.17 lakh crore.The total mop up from customs duty rose 12.7 percent to Rs 1.24 lakh crore during the 10-month period. PTI