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Indirect tax collections rose just seven per cent in the first eight months against 20 per cent growth pegged in the Budget for the entire 2014-15.
The mop-up stood at about Rs 3.29 lakh crore in April-November of the current financial year against Rs 3.07 lakh crore for the same period last year, according to data released by the finance ministry on Thursday.
The total indirect tax collections for April-November were 52.7 per cent of the full year budgeted estimate of Rs 6.23 lakh crore. This meant that almost half of the Budget estimates will have to be collected in the next four months.
The increase was partly driven by service tax and customs. Service tax for April-November 2014 grew 11.5 per cent to Rs 1.03 lakh crore, from Rs 91,982 crore for the same period last year. Customs grew 10.2 per cent to Rs 1.23 lakh crore from Rs 1.12 lakh crore in April-November 2013.
Meanwhile, central excise duty collection was almost flat year-over-year at Rs 1.03 lakh crore.
However, for November alone, there was some recovery in the indirect tax collections. The total collections grew 19.4 per cent at Rs 44,060 crore in November this year against Rs 36,905 crore in the year-ago period.
In what could augur well for factory production, central excise duty collections were up 10.4 per cent at Rs 14,952 crore in November against Rs 13,544 crore last year. Customs duty rose 30.8 per cent at Rs 17,185 crore in the month against Rs 13,137 crore in November last year. This might imply that imports were high in November as well, which might not allow trade deficit to come down, if exports did not do well. This might have repercussions for the current account deficit.
Services tax collections were up 16.6 per cent at Rs 11,923 crore in the month against Rs 10,224 crore in the year-ago period.
