Centre may keep excise duty unchanged

New Delhi, Feb 5 : Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram is likely to keep excise duty rates unchanged in the forthcoming General Budget, according to senior officials.

At present excise duty is levied at 16 per cent.

Concerned about the low collection of excise duty, the Centre will not raise excise duty, as it will aggravate the problem of tax evasion.

According to sources in the Finance Ministry, the government could further converge the different slabs of excise duty to the 16 per cent rate.

A majority of think tanks believe that the budget must focus on rationalising various slabs of excise duty and must go for uniform rate for all products.

ANI