Indirect tax collections touch Rs 2.07 lakh crore.

Easing pressure on government finances, indirect tax collections shot up by 42.3 per cent in the first eight months of the fiscal to touch Rs 2,07,756 crore.

Collections from indirect levies including excise duty, customs duty and service tax stood at Rs 1,45,958 crore in the same period last fiscal. The Centre is betting heavily on robust tax collections as it tries to finance a fiscal deficit of 5.5 per cent of the GDP in 2010-11.

“Last year’s collections of Rs 1,45,958 crore during the same period constituted an achievement of 54.5 per cent of the overall target fixed for indirect tax collections for the year 2009-10,” a finance ministry statement said on Wednesday.

In contrast, indirect tax receipts already amount to 66.3 per cent of the full fiscal target of Rs 3,13,471 crore and the government could overshoot the estimate buoyed by the recovery in economic activities.

Source : indianexpress.com