Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Zone of Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax set an all-time record in service tax collections to the tune of Rs. 709.70 crores during 2005-06. The previous year's collection was Rs. 440.03 crores.

Giving credit for this "tremendous achievement'' to his staff at a press conference here on Tuesday, Abhijit Bhattacharya, Chief Commissioner of the zone, said the department had done well in sectors like cigarettes, cement and pharmaceuticals.

The upward curve could only continue in future due to the vast investments being planned by the big industry in the manufacturing sector around the State capital. The revenue from Customs duty had also gone up from Rs. 404.76 crores to Rs. 494.98 crores.

Area of concern

However, there was a shortfall in revenue as far as Central excise was concerned from the previous year's Rs. 2,927.83 crores to Rs. 2,785.92 crores owing to the withdrawal of warehousing facility for petroleum products here.

Mr. Bhattacharya explained that if revenue from petroleum products (Rs. 393.15 crores last year) were to be excluded from consideration in the computation of total revenue, then it would automatically show an increase of Rs. 251.24 crores in the overall revenue this year for the Hyderabad Zone.

In all, he said, there was a growth of 61.28 per cent in service tax collection, 9.91 per cent in the Central excise component and 22.29 per cent in Customs revenue this year. There was a perfect synergy between the department and the assesses, he added.

He also complimented Hyderabad Deccan Cigarette Factory Private Limited, VST Industries Limited, Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited, MRF and Indian Cements Limited for their prompt tax compliance.

Commissioners C. P. Rao (Hyderabad-II), M. V. V. Rao (III), S. S. Rana (IV), S. P. Singh and H. R. Pradhan (both Appeals cell) gave details of their Commissionerates' performance separately.

The Service Tax wing of the Hyderabad Customs and Central Excise Department is all set to get delinked from its parent department and acquire its own commissionerate in a couple of months. At present the facility exists in all metropolises, including Bangalore.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail