Indirect tax collection grows 24% in Nov

Indirect tax collection in November rose 24.3% to Rs 55,297 crore led by growth in excise mobilisation, reflecting an uptick in industrial activity.

In November 2014, the government had mopped up Rs 44,475 crore from indirect taxes.

Excise collection jumped a whopping 58.3% to Rs 23,033 crore in November 2015, from Rs 14,551 crore in the same month last fiscal, said an official statement today.

Although the government did not provide cumulative data for indirect tax collection in April-November, the statement said 67.8% of the Budget estimate for the current fiscal has been achieved.

As per the Budget estimate 2015-16, the government aims to collect Rs 6.46 lakh crore from indirect taxes -- central excise, Customs and service tax.

However, Customs mop-up rose marginally by 1.7% to Rs 17,475 crore during the month under review compared with Rs 17,185 crore in November 2014, the statement said.

Service tax collection increased by 16.1% to Rs 14,789 crore as against Rs 12,739 crore in the same month a year ago.

These collections are partly due to additional measures such as excise increases on diesel and petrol, higher clean energy cess, withdrawal of exemptions for motor vehicles, capital goods and consumer durables and an increase in service tax rate to 14% from the earlier 12.36%.