By IANS,
New Delhi : The government is confident that it will meet the indirect tax collection target of Rs.4,99,694 crore in 2012-13, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Monday.
“I am confident that the department would leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the targets for the current year are not only met but handsomely exceeded,” Mukherjee said at the annual conference of chief commissioners and directors general of customs, Central Excise and Service Tax.
“The target for indirect tax collections in 2012-13 has been placed at Rs.4,99,694 crore. It is a growth of over 27 percent,” Mukherjee added.
Despite a slowdown in growth and the duty cuts effected on petroleum products in June 2011, the indirect tax collection stood at Rs.3,92,781 crore (excluding cess), marginally short of the revised estimates of Rs.3,94,000 crore in 2011-12.
According to Mukherjee, this target for 2012-13 has been fixed keeping in view the increase in central excise and service rate from 10 to 12 percent, the observed buoyancy in service tax collections.
Mukherjee also said that the challenges before the officers were multi-faceted.
“At a general level, there is an urgent need to reverse the declining trend in tax — GDP (gross domestic product) ratio by augmenting tax collections. This ratio was nearly 12 percent in 2007-08 but has dropped to around 10.5 percent in 2011-12.”
He also said that there was a scope for improving tax administration by leveraging technology and facilitating a congenial public interface, where required, through appropriate training and capacity building.