Customs rake in 30% more

Customs collection during April-July 2005 rose 30 per cent to Rs 19,784 crore compared to Rs 15,246 crore during the corresponding period last year.

A zone-wise break-up reveals that the customs collections in the western zone increased nearly 43 per cent during the first four months of the fiscal, while collection in the south zone rose 24 per cent. The collection in the northern region is almost static while the eastern zone has also witnessed an increase by over 31 per cent.

The static growth in the northern zone was on account of changes in the warehousing norms requiring payment of customs duties at the port and excise duty at the point of manufacture.

This has forced the Central Board of Excise and Customs to rework the targets for the various zones for the current fiscal. The changes in the norms effected earlier this year, has particulary affected customs and excise collections from crude petroleum and petroleum products, which account for around 40% of indirect tax proceeds.

The Revenue Department has asked the chief commissioners of customs and excise to work out their revised targets ahead of the annual meeting with finance minister P Chidambaram to be held either in the last week of August or early September.

Revenue Department officials pointed out that the western and the eastern zones were showing an increase in both excise and customs collection while the collections in the northern zone had come down due to the changes in the warehousing norms.

"A case in point is the Vadinar port in Gujarat where customs collections upto July last year was almost zero and this year it is Rs 400 crore during April-July this fiscal," an official said. adding that while the overall budget targets would be achieved, the zone wise targets would be re-worked to reflect the changed scenario.

Before February 2005, oil companies importing petroleum and petroleum products had the facility to transfer petroleum products without payment of customs duty from the warehouse at the port of import to inland warehouses.

The finance ministry, however, withdrew the facility and now no removal to inland bonded warehouses is allowed without payment of customs duty. Similarly, excise duty is now required to be paid when goods leave the manufacturing premises and not at the point of comsumption.

Hence, excise duty proceeds on petroleum products now go to the states where refineries are located instead of at consumption centres like New Delhi.