Beware the Ides of March - Indirect Taxes Revenue far below target

By Vijay Kumar

INDIRECT Tax assessees of the Country will be the TARGET for overanxious Revenue officers in the next 45 days, for they are far below the target of the Finance Minister. While the Finance Minister told the Parliament that he hoped to collect around 6.23 lakh crores, so far in the first 10 months, the collection is 4.28 lakh crores which is about 69%. The collection should have been about 83%. Of course the Department will make it up by hook or crook - by inflating collections or collecting next year's revenue this year.

Indirect Tax Collections up to January 2015

Strangely even Service Tax is below target.

They have to collect about 2 lakh crores in the next 45 days.

Nonetheless, the Press Release tries to convey a sense of achievement by comparing the corresponding figures of collections for the period January to April 2014 vis-à-vis of this year and proudly proclaim that there has been an increase of Customs duty collection by 8.7%, Service Tax by 8.3% and Central Excise by 5.3%. Only a few days back, the Central Statistics Office announced that India is the fastest growing economy - How? [See DDT 2535]. Some placebo effect this!