Despite a drop in customs and excise collections, India's mop up of indirect taxes touched nearly 25 percent of the annual budgeted target in the first four months of this fiscal.
This was thanks to a 16.5 percent jump in service tax collections over the corresponding period of the previous year, even as excise and customs revenues fell 0.4 percent and 2.2 percent respectively.
In actual numbers, indirect tax revenues increased to Rs.154,350 crore during April-July this fiscal from Rs.148,588 crore in the like period of last fiscal -- a growth of 3.9 percent.
The collections in the four months, thus, amounted to 24.8 percent of the budget estimates of Rs.623,244 crore, data released by the finance ministry showed Tuesday.
Service tax collections moved up from Rs.43,693 crore to Rs.50,850 crore during the period under review, registering an increase of 16.4 percent.