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| The board is confident of collecting almost 50 per cent more service tax in 2004-05 than the Rs 8,000 crore targeted in 2003-04 because of buoyant collection this fiscal.
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| Till the end of October, service tax collected was Rs 3,705 crore. Of this, Rs 810 crore came in October.
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| As per the mid-year review of the economy released by the finance ministry on Friday, collection during April-September was Rs 2,895 crore.
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| The service tax mop-up till October was 60 per cent more than in the same period of 2002-03. Officials said since service tax was payable quarterly, the impact of the change in service tax rate from 5 per cent to 8 per cent in the Budget for 2003-04 had become apparent only in the October figures.
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| This is especially true for the nine new services that have been brought in the tax net from this fiscal.
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| The officials said based on the burgeoning absolute figures, it should not be difficult to generate a collection of Rs 1,000 crore per month from service tax soon, and hence the Rs 12,000 crore target for 2004-05 was reasonable.
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| In the Budget for 2002-03, the service tax collection was pegged at Rs 6,026 crore, but the revised actual collection was Rs 5,000 crore.
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| The downward revision in the collection was due to withdrawal of service tax on life insurance policies.
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| The finance ministry will, however, find it tough to hike the service tax rate during the next Budget, with elections due in 2004. They said the number of new services that could be brought into the tax net was also limited.
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| In the Budget for 2003-04, the government carved out new service tax domain by fine-tuning at least a couple of existing services.
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| But bringing self-employed professionals like lawyers into the tax net in the Budget for 2004-05 will be difficult. |
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