The Hindu Business Line : Aug excise collection up 23% over July, says CBEC chief

Pointing out signs of economic recovery, Mr V. Sridhar, Chairman, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said, on Friday, that the excise duty collection for the month of August had grown 23 per cent over July.

Speaking at the sidelines of a CII conference on e-invoicing, he said that the Government was positive of meeting the indirect tax collection target for the current fiscal. The improved performance is attributed to the growth in industrial production, he said, while adding that excise from sugar and petroleum products was up 16 per cent and 4-5 per cent respectively.

However, he stated that the customs duty and service tax collections, in August, has seen a decline over the same month last year, falling 28 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively.

“The Government is geared up for the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) by April 1, 2010 and efforts are being made to bring consensus among all States and the Centre to subsume State level levies and mitigate the challenges for a successful dual GST implementation,” said Mr Sridhar.

He added that although there are daily meetings, with States having apprehensions, it proves difficult to bring them together and agree to one tax rate.

Mr Sridhar further said that the Government has been promoting e-business and expects to cover 90 per cent of the country by the end of the year through the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) initiative for imports (Customs duty).

“As India’s IT Act already enables invoicing through electronic medium, there is a need to create awareness for e-invoicing.

“With the GST coming up, it is the right time to start pilot projects for this initiative,” he said.

Also speaking at the event, Mr Robert Parker, Chief Financial Officer, IBM India, added that, “e-invoicing provides many benefits like real-time data delivery, significant cost reduction on paper, time and administrative costs, error-free invoicing process reducing manual error, besides real-time tax compliance with legislation.”

However, he pointed out various challenges like inter-operability and security concerns, besides legal uncertainty.