The world economic downturn, a slowing economy and stimulus packages by way tax cuts have all brought the government's indirect tax collections in the first four months of this fiscal down by 28 per cent as compared to last year's revenue during the same period.
India has exempted Bangladeshi exports to Nepal and Bhutan as such trade facilitation is mandatory for landlocked countries under the framework of provisions of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Excise duty collections rose 9.7 per cent to touch Rs 1.05 lakh crore.
The revenue from customs, excise and service tax, which make up the indirect taxes, during the April-June quarter of 2010-11 fiscal stood at Rs 56,930.15 crore (Rs 569.3 billion), up from Rs 39,693.78 crore (Rs 396.93 billion) in the year-ago period, a finance ministry official told PTI.
The 31st meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, held in December 2018, deferred a decision to reduce the GST rate for cement from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. This was despite recognising that cement - along with automobile parts - remained among the few mass-consumption items still taxed at the highest slab, which was originally meant for luxury and sin goods.
Service tax accounts for one-third of the total indirect tax collection in the country and the government expects to raise Rs 1.8 lakh crore (Rs 1.8 trillion) through the levy this fiscal.
Budget 2025-26 delivers a carefully calibrated strategy-stimulating demand and investment while keeping fiscal discipline intact. In an environment marked by global trade disruptions, and a softening in urban consumption, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has taken a measured approach.
With inflation under control, the Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC's) job is to support growth because the economy had recovered well from the lows in the initial months of the pandemic, according to the panel's members, who met in the first week of this month. The minutes of the meeting show the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor in his statement said: "Given the sharp moderation in inflation along with a stable near-term outlook, monetary policy needs to continue with the accommodative stance to ensure that the recovery gains greater traction and becomes broad-based." Ashima Goyal, external member of the MPC, said: "The current macroeconomic configuration and its expected future evolution imply there is space for the MPC to continue to support the revival of the economy with inflation remaining in the target band."
Gross GST collections rose by 9.1 per cent to about Rs 1.84 lakh crore in February, boosted by domestic consumption and indicating potential economic revival. As per the official data released on Saturday, on a gross basis, mop up from Central GST stood at Rs 35,204 crore, State GST at Rs 43,704 crore, Integrated GST at Rs 90,870 crore and compensation cess of Rs 13,868 crore.
Indirect tax collections increased by 8.82 per cent to Rs 75,655 crore during the first seven months of this fiscal from Rs 69,521 crore in April-October 2002.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday issued a three-line whip to all of its Lok Sabha MPs asking them to be present in the House for the passing of the Union Budget 2025-26.
Total collection of indirect taxes -- excise, customs and service tax -- stood at about Rs 3,55,003 crore (Rs 3,550.03 billion) during the first nine months of 2013-14 as against Rs 3,34,309 crore (Rs 3,343.09 billion) in the year-ago period, sources in the Finance Ministry said.
The government is likely to revise downwards indirect tax collections target for the current financial year by at least Rs 20,000 crore.
The Trump trade shock is a chance to push long-overdue reforms, rather than tinker with tariffs to appease the US, suggests M Govinda Rao.
P K Mishra, a retired IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, is currently serving as the principal secretary to the prime minister.
India and New Zealand have signed a pact to institutionalize their defence ties and vowed to boost cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised concerns about anti-India activities by some illegal elements in New Zealand with his Kiwi counterpart Christopher Luxon. The two sides also signed six agreements to enhance cooperation in areas including education, sports, agriculture, and climate change. They also agreed to prepare a roadmap for cooperation in the defence industry sector and explore early implementation of cooperation in the digital payments sector.
The government on Monday appointed Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra as the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet cleared Malhotra's name, who has been appointed as the RBI Governor for three years, starting Wednesday. Malhotra, a 1990 Batch Rajasthan Cadre IAS Officer, will replace Shaktikanta Das, whose tenure ends on Tuesday (December 10, 2024).
Centre likely to miss collection target for '09-10
A recent data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) confirm that both the manufacturing and mining sectors shrunk in 2013-14 with fall in output.
Gross GST collection grew 9 per cent to over Rs 1.87 lakh crore in October on higher revenues from domestic transactions. The Central GST collection stood at Rs 33,821 crore, State GST at Rs 41,864 crore, Integrated IGST at Rs 99,111 crore and cess at Rs 12,550 crore.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR against an Enforcement Directorate (ED) assistant director who escaped during a trap operation last week. The ED officer, posted in Shimla, is accused of demanding bribes from promoters of educational institutes in Himachal Pradesh. The CBI has already arrested the officer's brother and a middleman in connection with the case. The ED officer and his supervisory officers have been transferred to Delhi.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her 8th straight Budget and all eyes will be on the much-expected tax relief for the middle class. Sitharaman had in her first Budget in 2019 replaced the leather briefcase -- which had been in use for decades for carrying Budget documents -- with a traditional 'bahi-khata' wrapped in red cloth.
Anticipating US action on tariffs, India seems to have made the first move by revamping its tariff structure by reducing the slabs to eight rates, points out Mukesh Butani.
The US Trade Representative noted that India's average applied tariff rate stood at 17% per cent, the highest of any major world economy.
For every rupee in the government coffer, the biggest pie of 63 paise will come from direct and indirect taxes, according to the Union Budget 2024-25 documents.
These are the highlights of the Union Budget 2025-26 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Saturday.
'We are not incentivising the old tax scheme. These taxpayers will also shift to the new regime after comparison.'
'Rates go up, revenues go up, and the need for compensation diminishes.'
In a recent clarification, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) provided insights into the goods and services tax (GST) treatment of transactions involving vouchers. According to the CBIC, vouchers can be categorised into two types.
The Centre mopped up Rs 2.46 lakh crore from indirect taxes in the last fiscal, as much as Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) more than the revised target, despite stimulus packages.
'The bull market cycle ran for five years. It's the end of that cycle.' 'The next cycle is a down cycle, and in that down cycle, you will see the Sensex falling from their highs of around 68,000 to maybe 40,000-50,000 at the bottom of the cycle.'
'Peninsular Indians could ask 'Why should we contribute half of India's tax revenues if we account for only a quarter of the seats in the Lok Sabha?'.' 'The rest of the country seems likely to counter that 'democracy means one vote per person irrespective of where that person resides in India'.' 'With no easy answers to this thorny debate, the south's economic ascendancy could end up creating a Hobson's choice.' A revealing excerpt from Nandita Rajhansa and Saurabh Mukherjea's book, Behold the Leviathan: The Unusual Rise of Modern India.
Taiwan in 1951 came up with an ingenious plan to improve tax compliance: citizens taking receipts for purchases could use them as lottery tickets. Customers were incentivized, and businesses found it hard to evade taxes. The plan's success prompted other countries, Slovakia and Greece among them, to launch similar initiatives. India doesn't seem to find the need yet for such schemes amid surging goods and services tax (GST) collections.
GST collections in July rose 10.3 per cent to over Rs 1.82 lakh crore, mainly driven by domestic transactions in goods and services, according to official data released on Thursday. This is the third-highest-ever monthly collection recorded since the indirect tax regime was rolled out 7 years ago on July 1, 2017. According to the data, total refunds stood at Rs 16,283 crore in July.
The government's initiative to migrate SEZ data from NSDL software to ICEGATE system for streamlined reporting of import data caused double counting of gold imports, resulting in inflated figures and the issue has now been largely rectified, government sources said. The downward revision has provided the actual picture of trade deficit (difference between imports and exports), which was earlier looking very high. The deficit for November will now be revised downwards from $37.84 billion to about $32.8 billion. Similarly, there will be a revision in overall import numbers as well.
The Centre's indirect tax collections grew by 16.2 per cent at Rs 1,53,988 crore (Rs 1539.88 billion) till January this fiscal from Rs 1,32,501 crore (Rs 1325.01 billion) during same period of 2004-05.
The government has realised Rs 3.75 lakh crore as indirect tax in the April-January period, 74.41 per cent of the target for 2012-13 fiscal, Parliament was informed on Friday.
In a relief for foreign firms giving loans to Indian subsidiaries, tax authorities have said goods and services tax (GST) will not be imposed on them, subject to some caveats. Additional fees, commissions, or related payments - over and above the amount charged as interest - on these loans will attract GST at 18 per cent, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has said.
India's second largest IT services company Infosys has been slapped with a 'pre-show cause' notice for alleged GST evasion to the tune of about Rs 32,403 crore. In a BSE filing, the Bengaluru headquartered IT firm said Karnataka State GST authorities have issued a pre-show cause notice for payment of GST of Rs 32,403 crores for the period July 2017 to March 2022, towards the expenses incurred by overseas branch offices of Infosys Ltd, and added that the company has responded to the pre-show cause notice.
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