Service tax collection to touch Rs 50,200cr

New Delhi, July 28: Service tax collection is expected to touch Rs 50,200 crore this fiscal from Rs 37,500 crore in the previous year, a top government official said.

''The government collected Rs 400 crore through service tax in 1994, when it was introduced. For the current fiscal, the government projected to collect about Rs 50,200 crore,'' said Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Member P C Jha while addressing a national conference on Service Tax and CENVAT Credit yesterday.

In 1994, only three services were covered in the service tax, now it has expanded to cover around hundred services, he added.

The service tax will alone be contributing about nine per cent of the government's total tax collection and about 18 per cent of indirect tax collection in the current fiscal, said Mr Jha.

''About Rs 37,500 crore was collected as service tax in the last fiscal that contributes to more than 50 per cent of the GDP,'' he claimed.

To ease the tax on small service provider, he said, the Government has increased the service tax exemption from Rs four lakhs to Rs eight lakhs.

This year, we will have 4.5 lakh active tax payers, despite the exemption because of which two lakh tax payers would go out of the tax net, Mr Jha said.

UNI