The commercial tax collection in Orissa surged by 27.7 percent in the first 5 months of the current fiscal compared to the same period in the previous year.
The total collections was Rs 2004.49 crore during April-August this year, which is about Rs 434.86 crore higher than Rs 1569.63 crore collected in the corresponding period last year.
Orissa Sales Tax (OST) or Value Added Tax (VAT) collection increased by 27.61 percent to Rs 1474.57 crore during Apr-Aug compared to Rs Rs 1155.53 crore collected during the same period last year. In August this year alone Rs 328.03 crore was collected from this source which is 23.39 percent more than the collections in August 2007.
Similarly, buoyancy in the collections of the Central Sales Tax (CST) continued even after the reduction of rate of CST to 2 percent from the beginning of this fiscal compared to 3 percent earlier. The collections increased by 54.62 percent during Apr-Aug to reach Rs 255.66 crore compared to the last year’s corresponding figure of Rs 165.34 crore. Contribution of the major corporates has helped the government to achieve 54.62 percent growth in CST collections.
While the contribution of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) increased by about 38 percent from Rs 46 crore to Rs 64 crore, the contribution of Mahanadai Coalfields Limited (MCL) went up by 37 percent from Rs 23 crore to Rs 31 crore. Similarly, National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco) paid Rs 32 crore t CST, up by 104 percent from Rs 15.64 crore last fiscal. The collections of taxes from the oil companies which mainly consists of CST increased by more than 30 percent.
While the tax paid by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) increased by 39 percent to Rs 248 crore, the contribution of Hindusthan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) went up by 30 percent to Rs 86 crore in the first five months of the fiscal. Besides, the collections from Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) increased by 41 percent to Rs 122 crore by end of August 2008.
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Sources said, the total sales tax taking VAT and CST together increased by 30.99 percent to Rs 1730.24 crore. It was Rs 1320.88 crore during Apr-Aug in the previous fiscal. The growth of entry tax was moderate with the collections increasing by 9.66 percent. It went up to Rs 244.24 crore compared to Rs 222.73 crore in the previous year.
A large number of litigation is reportedly acting as a constraint in realizing the higher tax collection targets from this source.