I / New Delhi March 7, 2007
| CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said the economy will continue to grow, and Budget 2007 has done nothing to harm the growth momentum. Chidambaram, while addressing members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi this morning, said that all assumptions made while preparing Budget 2007 was based on strong growth. In a strong message to manufacturing firms, Chidambaram today asked them to pay excise duty honestly and warned that evasions will be dealt with strongly. Besides income tax and service tax, Chidambaram is banking on excise duty to meet the overall 17% growth in tax revenue in 2007-08. Excise duty collection is expected to fall short by Rs 2,000 crore from the budget estimate of Rs 1,19,000 crore for the current fiscal. "I am inclined to believe that there is sizeable evasion in central excise. Evading duties doesn |
