The name of Mitra, a 1975 batch IAS officer from West Bengal cadre, was cleared by the appointments committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
By partially rolling back the stimulus that was provided through fiscal incentives in the excise duties and by retaining the service tax at 10 per cent, we are primarily signalling that we are going back to a unified goods and services tax, says Sunil Mitra.
The government has set a revenue target of Rs 9 lakh crore during the current financial year, a top official said.
The government has set the indirect tax collection target for the current fiscal at Rs 3.92 lakh crore (Rs 3.92 trillion) and for direct taxes at Rs 5.32 lakh crore (Rs 5.32 trillion).
"We had announced last year that the decision would be taken at an appropriate time to deregulate diesel, the government hasn't changed their decision... We have to see how the inflationary pressures go and take a decision," Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra told reporters on the sidelines of an Assocham function.
In the revised Draft Taxes Code, which will replace the 50-year-old Income Tax Act, the finance ministry decided to drop its earlier proposal to tax the Government Provident Fund or the Public Provident Fund withdrawals.
The Finance Ministry on Thursday said it does not anticipate any backlash from PSU employees against divestment in state-run companies and the target of Rs 40,000 crore under this head next fiscal is 'modest' and achievable.
The idea is not to form a Bengali lobby group but simply to get to know each other better.
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.
Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra admits tax collection target for 2011-12 is ambitious but achievable.
The draft is in the form of a discussion paper, and has taken radical steps to improvise on the paper released in 2009 on the same issue.
The ministry had revised the estimates of direct and indirect taxes after healthy collection.
In a pre-Budget meeting with Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra, Ficci President Rajan Bharti Mittal said in view of the looming threat of a double-dip recession and another slowdown in western countries, the stimulus should not be rolled back in the Budget in February.
As the Centre tried to build consensus on its proposal on constitution amendment bill, required for the rollout of GST, and even floated revised draft to please states, some states came out with alternative model that would not require the amendment of constitution.
With the finance ministry facing the risk of missing its tax collection target this year, it has turned down a proposal to reduce duties on petroleum products to reduce the impact of rising crude prices on profitability of oil companies.
The government on Thursday said it may not be possible to roll out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April next year, as the proposal needs consent from all the states. "...the (GST) legislation cannot be voted upon until the ratification is completed...there may be problem on the time factor (April 1, 2012)," Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra said at a CII post-Budget conference.
Hinting at the possibility of the Budget proposal for imposition of service tax on 25-bed hospitals and diagnostic check-ups being rolled back, the government has said it is willing to discuss the issue.
The much awaited new indirect tax regime Goods and Service Tax (GST) is unlikely to be implemented from the scheduled date of April 1, 2011, a top government official said on Tuesday.
The upward revision in the tax collection target comes in the wake of 8.9 per cent economic growth during the first half of the current fiscal.
Having altered the income tax slabs in the Budget, the Finance Ministry on Thursday said the next round of widening of the tax slabs is possible when the direct taxes code (DTC) comes into effect, likely from 2011-12.
The government on Wednesday said the total tax collections--both direct and indirect--for 2010-11 have exceeded even the revised estimate on the back of strong economic activities.
In the Budget for 2011-12, the government revised the tax mop-up target for 2010-11 to Rs. 4.46 lakh crore for direct taxes and Rs. 3.36 lakh crore for indirect taxes.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has also said that the bill on DTC was likely to be tabled in the monsoon session of Parliament.
Central Board of Excise and Customs chairman V Sridhar has also said the realty sector would not attract 10 per cent service tax in effect.
The Finance Commission (task force) had recommended an overall GST rate of 12 per cent 'but it is likely to be higher than that', revenue secretary Sunil Mitra said at a Confederation of Indian Industry seminar in New Delhi.
The government on Saturday said it will earn an additional Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) from the hike in excise and restoration of duties on petroleum products, while it will lose Rs 21,000 crore (Rs 210 billion) due to income tax sops.
Mitra will take over from P V Bhide after January 31.
The central government will lose about Rs 24,000 crore (Rs 240 billion) of revenue during the current fiscal on account of reduction in customs and excise duties on petroleum goods.
The appointment of new expenditure secretary comes a month-and-a-half ahead of the Budget for 2020-21 to be presented on February 1.
'The procurement cycle still consumes too much time; little has changed.'
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