Excise duty collection fell by 8.7 per cent in September to Rs 11,432 crore from Rs 12,528 in same month last year,showing weak manufacturing activity. The drop in excise collections shows that there has been a fall in the manufacturing activity," Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairman S D Majumder said. He expressed hope that customs and excise revenues pick up in October on account of the festive season,he added. The excise collections dropped sharply in September to Rs 11,432 crore whereas customs mop-up grew by a marginal 7.2 per cent to Rs 12,286 crore during the month,according to the Finance Ministry's latest data. "The 7.2 per cent growth in customs is mainly due to fall in rupee which has also depreciated 7 per cent," Majumder said. The overall collections for September went up by just 5.9 per cent at Rs 32,416 crore against Rs 30,608 crore in the same month last year. However,the April-September data showed an overall rise of 20.4 per cent in indirect tax revenues at Rs 1,90,141 crore. The customs collections in the first six months of the current fiscal expanded 19.4 per cent at Rs 75,613 crore,and excise collections also grew 13.2 per cent and stood at Rs 71,058 crore. Besides,services tax collections registered a robust 36.5 per cent growth in the April-September period at Rs 43,470 crore. For September,it was up 31.4 per cent at Rs 8,698 crore. The industrial growth of the country slowed to 4.1 per cent in August on account of the poor performance of the manufacturing sector and a decline in mining output,indicating a economic slowdown. Growth in factory output,as measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP),stood at 4.5 per cent in August last year. Besides,economic growth in the first quarter (April- June) also fell to a six quarter low of 7.7 per cent.
