Tax mop-up to fall short by Rs 5,000 cr in ’00-01

Tax mop-up to fall short by Rs 5,000 cr in ’00-01
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

MUMBAI, FEB 11: Slowdown in the economy particularly the manufacturing sector is likely to result in a shortall of about Rs 5,000 crore in tax collection during the current fiscal. Against the target of Rs 1,91,000 crore, finance ministry is expecting to mop up over Rs 1,85,000 crore this fiscal, sources said.

When contacted Revenue Secretary, S Narayan declined to confirm the shorftall in tax targets saying “we have performed well till January and will do the best to meet the targets”. Finance ministry officials said that the shortfall was not likely to result in overshooting of market borrowings. Government has completed over 90 per cent of its gross budgeted borrowing of Rs 1,17,704 crore for the current fiscal, till January 15, 2001.

The slowdown in tax collection is on account of low growth in indirect tax collection, sources said adding this was resultant of a general slowdown in the economy.

Reflecting the sluggishness in industrial growth, tax collections during December witnessed a virtual stagnation following a sharp drop in customs revenue and a slowdown in tax collections from corporates, income and excise.

The cumulative tax collections during April-December at Rs 1,29,568.91 crore shows a growth of only 14.09 per cent over the last year’s corresponding level of Rs 1,13,578.48 crore. This is much lower than the annual budgeted growth of 17.8 per cent, they said.

Direct tax collections registered a growth of 29.12 per cent to Rs 44,686 crore while mop up under indirect taxes increased by only 7.5 per cent to touch Rs 84,882.89 crore. Within direct taxes, income tax collections during April-December 2000 increased by 36.8 per cent while mop up under corporate taxes showed an increase of only 25.6 per cent, sources said. Within indirect taxes, excise tax collections increasedby 12.6 per cent while customs showed a marginal increase of only 0.5 per cent.