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Stern steps against excise evasion

Special Correspondent

Collections drop 4 % in April

NEW DELHI: Concerned over the poor growth in excise duty collections, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday directed the Excise Department to take stern measures against tax evasion and evolve a mechanism for collection of third-party information to facilitate correct assessment of the taxpayers’ liabilities.

Talking to newspersons after inaugurating the annual conference of Chief Commissioners of Excise and Customs here, Mr. Chidambaram said: “Problems in excise [collection] are well known. It continues to be: one, clandestine movement of goods; two, misuse of Cenvat credit and others”.

An aberration

Pointing to the decline in excise duty collections during the first month of the current fiscal, the Finance Minister expressed apprehensions over meeting the budgeted target of mopping up Rs. 1,36,610 crore under this head alone. “…at the moment, it seems little formidable…This [fall in collections in April] might be an aberration,” he said.

Excise duty collections slipped by 3.9 per cent to Rs. 6,410 crore in April this year from Rs. 6,673 crore in the same month last year. However, he was confident that the overall budget target of about Rs. 3.20 lakh crore revenue collection through indirect taxes would be met. “I think we can achieve growth rates in both customs and service tax since the projected growth rates are reasonable,” he said.

Explaining the reasons for the “sluggish growth” in excise mop-up, Mr. Chidambaram said the Cenvat credit facility was still being misused by small and medium as also large industries. “We have to check that,” he said.

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