Evading excise taxes doesn't pay in the long run – FM
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday asked Indian manufacturers to avoid evasion of excise duty saying that the Government could miss the annual target for revenues from this tax. "Central excise remains the laggard of our taxes. There is no reason to avoid central excise," Chidambaram said. "There is considerable amount of duty evasion and I urge manufacturers to pay excise duty as they pay corporate and service taxes." Evading excise taxes doesn't pay in the long run, he said. "When the economy is growing close to 9% and manufacturing is growing at double digits, surely the central excise must grow at the same rate," he said. While receipts from corporate tax, service tax, and customs showed robust growth during April-January 2006-07, excise duty collections have been sluggish at 7.8%.