Centre fixes Rs 4.5 lakh cr as target for taxes

Mumbai, Dec 17: The Central government had fixed Rs 4.5 lakh crore as the target for collection of taxes, both direct and indirect, from various industries in the country during the current financial year, Central Excise and Service Tax (CBEC) member P C Jha said today.

Addressing a meeting of the industrialists, held jointly by All India Association of Industries (AIAI) and World Trade Centre (WTC) here, Mr Jha said by the end of current financial year, the government expects to collect a sum of Rs 1.18 lakh crore from excise sector alone. For sectors like service taxes and the customs duty, the government was aiming of collecting a sum of Rs 40,000 crore and Rs 80,000 crore respectively.

Apart from that, the government expects to collect direct taxes about Rs 2.10 lakh crore. Thus, the total collection projected for the year is Rs 4.50 lakh crore, he added.

Comparing this year's projection figures to that of last year, he said ''We want to collect excise revenue 6.5 per cent more than that of last year''.

He said ''We have been able to collect the excise revenue at the rate of six per cent, which is more as compared to the last year's figure and hence we are marginally lagging behind our target.'' Mr Jha said over 90 per cent of the department's collections came from Mumbai alone.

''Our focus is very much on the small-scale industries (SSIs) in the metropolis, which comprise 25 per cent of the service tax payers of the entire country,'' he added.

UNI