New Delhi: The government on Monday retained the broad rate structure for all indirect taxes, which will dent its kitty under this head by 16.11 per cent this fiscal compared to projections a year ago.
The government's collection from indirect taxes is pegged at Rs 2.69 lakh crores for this fiscal, a way down from the Rs 3.21 lakh crores Budget Estimate for 2008-09.
This is despite the fact that the net of service tax has been expanded, excise duty on some goods like LPG, nylon and yarn raised from 4 per cent to 8 per cent and customs duty imposed on set-top boxes which would give an additional Rs 2,000 crores.
The government realised a low indirect tax revenue at around Rs 2.81 lakh crores in 2008-09 against budget estimates of Rs 3.21 lakh crores.
Only service tax target of Rs 65,000 crores, pegged in the revised estimates for 2008-09, is retained in the full Budget presented today, which is higher by Rs 540 crores than projected in budget estimates for the last fiscal.
Both customs duty and excise duty collection targets for the current fiscal are less than projected for last fiscal, both in revised estimates and budget estimates.
Customs duty collections are projected to be down over 17 per cent at Rs 98,000 crores during the current fiscal against Rs 1,18,930 crores in Budget estimates, and over nine per cent lower than Rs 1,08,000 crores in revised estimates.
Source: PTI
