Companies pay more excise in Aug vs July
NEW DELHI - Indian firms paid 22.7 percent more factory gate duties on month in August, indicating a revival of industrial growth, and the government hopes to meet the annual indirect tax target, an official said on Friday.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his July budget set the annual indirec tax collection target at 2.69 trillion rupees ($56 billion) in 2009/10.
The corporate advance tax payments have also grown by about 15 percent to 440.10 billion rupees in July-September this fiscal compared to a year ago, and more than doubled against the first quarter.
"Of course, there is (a) clear sign of recovery and we hope to meet the budget target (for indirect tax receipts)," V Sridhar, Chairman, Central Boord of Excise and Customs (CBEC), told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.
He said the negative growth in customs duties has slowed down and the service tax payments have gone up despite a cut in tax rate by 2 percent, to 10 percent from 12 percent.
India's indirect tax receipts had fallen by 28 percent to 559.1 billion rupees during April-July period, compared with 796.6 billion rupees a year ago due to industrial slowdown and falling exports.
In July, the excise duties stood at 69.34 billion rupees, down by 31.52 percent compared with 101.25 billion rupees a year ago.
However, the government's stimulus packages and cut in interest rates have boosted demand, particularly in rural areas, for consumer durables and automobiles, boosting corporate profits and tax payments.
The central bank has cut benchmark interest rates six times from October 2008 to April 2009 and said the Asia's third largest economy will grow 6 percent in 2009/10 slower than the average 8.7 percent in previous four years.
"Sugar has shown a very healthy growth of 16 percent in revenue collections... in petroleum products there is again a revenue growth of 4-5 percent,"