On track to meet ‘stiff’ tax collection target, says FinMin

With about five weeks left in the current fiscal, the finance ministry today said it will achieve the "stiff" revenue collection target for 2012-13.

"I am also sure that we will achieve the revenue target which has been set, stiff as they are, with all our efforts we have put in," revenue secretary Sumit Bose said at the Central Excise Day celebrations here.

The government has set the revenue collection target at Rs 10.77 lakh crore for the fiscal as against Rs 9.01 lakh crore in 2011-12.

Chairperson of Central Board of Excise and Customs, Praveen Mahajan, while addressing the gathering, asked officials and field staff to work hard to meet the target for the fiscal ending March 31.

While the direct collection has been Rs 4.55 lakh crore during the April-January period, the indirect tax realisation has been Rs 3.75 lakh crore. With this, the government has managed to realise over Rs 8.3 lakh crore from tax receipts till January.

The government is facing a tough task in meeting its revenue collection targets amid slowdown in economic activities.

Due to various global and domestic factors, India's economic growth in 2012-13 is likely to be only 5 per cent, the lowest in a decade.

As per the latest data, industrial production growth stood at 0.7 per cent during April-December period of this fiscal, down from 3.7 per cent in the same period of 2011-12.

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