Excise Revenue falls by 3.2% in September – Excise and Customs Revenue crosses One Lakh Crores in the half year
If you are an excise assessee, beware – the Ides of March are here – in October. The Excise Revenue for September 2008 is 3.8% less than the Revenue for September 2007 and that sure will send the Department on a crazy drive. Your CENVAT Credit will be suspect; your production figures will not be believed; and most probably your CENVAT Credit accounts will be frozen and if you don't co-operate, you will have to bear with frequent friendly visits from the Anti Evasion wing!
Hell hath no fury like the Department scorned! And if the trend continues in October, you've had it!
But Service Tax is the saving grace – there is a 26% increase. The fact is, whatever the Department does, they cannot increase the Customs or Excise Revenue, but they can certainly tap the vast area of service providers who simply do not pay Service Tax. Just by going through the real estate and classified pages of newspapers, they can rope in new Service Tax assessees.
And maybe there should be a permanent amnesty scheme for Service Tax – many prospective assessees are not approaching the Department for fear that their past would be investigated – the Department is the triple loser for the past, present and future! The Department can collect at least 50,000 Crores more if they just deploy all their staff for Service Tax work in the next six months. They should have a team in each Commissionerate just to read newspapers and watch TV.
They can also fix targets – for all officers from Inspector to Chief Commissioner. Each officer should be required to bring in at least one new assessee under ST net every week and may be they can be rewarded 10% of the tax paid by each new assessee.