The Finance Minister, on Sunday, expressed optimism that indirect tax collections would exceed the budget target of over Rs 2,79,000 crore for the current fiscal, even though the excise duty collections growth was a matter of concern.
“I am confident that the budget targets (for indirect tax collections) would exceed this year too,” Finance Minister P Chidambaram said here.
He said indirect tax collections exceeded the budget targets by Rs 8,615 crore in the 2005-06 fiscal, while in 2006-07, they surpassed targets by Rs 11,300 crore. Accordingly, the departments were given Rs 86 crore and Rs 113 crore for these two years to provide better service conditions to their officials as part of scheme to give one per cent of excess collections for this purpose.
