Even though the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) is confident of meeting the indirect tax collection target of Rs 3.2 lakh crore this fiscal, excise duty continues to be a cause for concern. ?Growth in excise duty collections is low because of duty cuts on petrol and diesel, besides the misuse of exemptions given to certain areas,? PC Jha chairman CBEC said on Friday.
So while collections from customs duty and service tax have been recording an over 15% increase this fiscal, revenue from excise duty increased by a mere 3.7% last month.
Massive evasion of excise duty has been haunting the tax authorities for a long time. The department has infact taken a number of measures in the recent past to address the issue. It has tightened the area based exemptions in Jammu and Kashmir, the northeast and Kutch, the CBEC chairman said.
The CBEC also introduced the compounded duty scheme for pan masala and gutkha manufacturers this year. The measure has resulted in collection of Rs 237 crore from these items in the month of August, 2008, which was more than double of a monthly trend of Rs 110 crore last fiscal, Jha said.
The compounded duty scheme provides for payment of excise duty on the basis of number of packing machines installed in the factory premises of manufacturer. The CBEC is also planning to initiate a system of third party information on the lines of the Annual Information Return to curb excise duty evasion, Jha said. ?Third party information could besought from electricity department, information officers of states,? he explained.
