The government's revenue collection from central excise, service tax and customs is likely to fall short by Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) from the target of Rs 2,68,000 crore (Rs 2,680 billion) set for the current fiscal due to continuation of the stimulus package, the CBEC said on Monday.
The government had reduced the rate of excise duty to 8 per cent from 14 per cent and service tax by 2 per cent as part of the stimulus package given to the industry last year.
This was bound to impact revenue collections, Central Board of Excise and Customs chairman V Sridhar said. "Because of the stimulus package being offered by Centre to the industry...our collections from excise, customs and service tax will fall short by Rs. 15,000 crore against the targeted collections of Rs 2,68,000 crore for the current fiscal," he said.
CBEC had fixed the target of mobilising revenue from central excise, service tax and customs to the tune of Rs 2,68,000 crore for 2009-10, as was achieved in 2008-09.
Because of the stimulus package, Sridhar said, the target for revenue collections for the year 2009-10 "remained same as the actual collections (Rs 2,68,000 crore) was made in 2008-09".
Sridhar said the collection of indirect taxes was still down by 22 per cent till October 2009 compared with the collections made in the corresponding period of last fiscal.
