Separate commissionerate for Service Tax on the cards: Official

Hyderabad, Apr 11 (UNI) Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax (Hyderabad Zone) Chief Commissioner Abhijit Bhattacharya today said a separate commissionerate for Service Tax sector is on the cards.

Speaking after briefing the media on the performance of the Office of Chief Commissioner Customs, Central Excise during the financial year 2005-06, he said there was a proposal for establishing a separate commissionerate for Service Tax.

''However, I cannot speak anything concrete about the proposal at the present. It is still under deliberations.'' On the performance of his department, Mr Bhattacharya said the Hyderabad Central Excise revenue had gone up from Rs 2927.83 crore to Rs 2785.92 crore, Customs from Rs 404.76 crore to Rs 494.98 crore and Service Tax from Rs 440.03 crore to Rs 709.70 and the arrear targets of Rs 51.78 crore given to this office had not only been achieved but had been exceeded by Rs 33.73 crore.

He said Customs revenue had shown 22.20 per cent rate of growth, Service Tax 61.28 per cent and Central Excise 9.91 per cent, he added.

Mr Bhattacharya said Hyderabad seemed to be on a growth curve which was possible due to the collective and sincere efforts of their officers and congenial atmosphere created by the governments of the day.

''We are pleased with the performance and there is every possibility of this result being improved upon in the coming years.

However we have also found that there are some sectors which have not done as one had wished them to be, like articles of iron and steel, and synthetic filament yarn.

On the other hand there are sectors where the growth has been positive like cigarettes, cement and pharmaceuticals,'' he added.

Asked about a separate commissionerate in Hyderabad, Mr Abhijit said there was such a proposal for Service Tax which was under deliberation.

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