AHMEDABAD: In what could be seen as a revival of the economy, the customs and excise duty collections in the first quarter of 2015-16 in the Ahmedabad zone shot up by 800% and 109.02% respectively in comparison to same period last year. According to officials, increase in manufacturing activities, imports and exports contributed to a record increase in the collections.
As per latest figures, against Rs 9 crore collected in first quarter in 2014-15 around Rs 81 crore of customs duty was collected in April-June 2015. The target for the customs duty collection in current fiscal is Rs 273 crore. “There has been an increase of movement of goods in inland container depot in the Ahmedabad zone,” said an official adding, “Also there has been a substantial rise in duty collections at airport. Electronic gadgets and cigarettes besides gold and silver were brought in good quantities by passengers from abroad.”
In the case of excise duty, the central agency collected Rs 4,170 crore in duty in the first quarter in 2015-16 against Rs 1,995 crore in same period last year. “The record increase has been possible because of increased production in the state by refineries in the first quarter. The refineries contribute around 60% of the total excise duty collection in Ahmedabad zone,” said an excise official.
The target for 2015-16 has been kept at Rs 13,000 crore (30% more than last year) and we are hopeful of meeting the target,” added excise official.
However, service tax collection recorded an increase of little over 11.5% in the first quarter in this fiscal compared to last year. “The maximum increase was recorded in manpower recruitment service (35%) followed by port services (27%), telecommunications (19%), transport of goods by road (16%) and renting of immovable property (13%) among others,” said a service tax official.
The top service tax payers included Adani Ports and SEZ, BSNL, Vodafone West Ltd, JMC Projects (India) Ltd and GPPL.
