Indirect tax mop-up shoots up to Rs 32,596cr in Apr-Aug

Indirect tax collections registered an increase during the April-August period. Central excise collections stood at Rs 32,596 crore as again...

Indirect tax collections registered an increase during the April-August period. Central excise collections stood at Rs 32,596 crore as against Rs 30,457 crore a year earlier.

Customs duty receipts stood at Rs 18,864 crore during the period under review as against Rs 17,638 crore during the corresponding period last fiscal. Services tax collections for the April-July period stood at Rs 3,200 crore.

Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) chairman A.K. Singh said on Wednesday that the department has created a facility for e-filing of returns by importers and exporters. Customs automation has made it possible for them to file documents on the customs systems without coming to customs office/service centres. The facility is already operational at two customs locations at the Delhi and Mumbai air cargo complexes. This will be rolled out to 12 more customs locations, he added.

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On the Central excise front, the revenue department has developed a module called ‘Sermon’ or system for excise revenue monitoring. It will help monitor the Central excise revenue and prepare a database.

Singh said reforms and simplification in the Central excise system and norms considerably reduced the interface between the department and assessees. ‘‘Assessees in most cases clear their goods from their factories without their having to interface with the department. Automation on the Central excise side has mainly to be post-transactional,’’ he said.

The revenue department has also developed a bouquet of software packages for simplifying the excise tax regime. It has launched a system for online allotment of unique Central excise registration numbers based on the permanent account number (PAN).

The system generates registration certificate after capturing details in a central database and helps in building of an assessee directory at the national level. The department also operates cyber revenue realisation details to capture online details on excise, customs and service tax on a fortnightly basis.