New Delhi: Dismissing fears of a "raid-raj", Finance Minister P Chidambaram today (Aug 11, 2004) said taxmen would go all out after evaders for recovering tax arrears, amounting to Rs 87,000 crore, and ruled out any amnesty scheme to tap black money.

"There is no raid-raj. There will only be recovery of arrears, which is undisputed and which is due to the Government," he told sources in an interview.

He was replying to questions on apprehensions that a "raid raj" would be unleashed in view of Government's intention to recover tax arrears and the provisions in Finance Bill on mandatory annual information returns (AIR) on transactions above Rs 50,000.

"AIR was launched last year. It was their NDA's (National Democratic Alliance) baby and it's a good baby," he said.

Chidambaram said there was no mention of the words "search" or "raid" in the Finance Bill. The Government will attempt to recover what is due to the exchequer, he said.

The recoveries of arrears are part of the Additional Revenue Mobilisation (ARM) measures that Chidambaram announced in the budget. The other two ARM components are education cess of 2 per cent on all central taxes and Securities Transaction Tax (STT).

Asked whether there was any possibility of another tax amnesty scheme like VDIS, he said "zilch".

Referring to the revenue collection in the first quarter, Chidambaram said, "This year's collections are on track". "Income tax collection has been robust. The first quarter profits of companies have been impressive and corporate tax collections have been higher. Customs duty collection have also picked up in July," he said.

According to the figures released by Controller General of Accounts, Tax collections were up by 27 per cent at Rs 24,306 crore in the first quarter of 2004-05.

While gross collection grew by 22 per cent to Rs 41,511 crore, the net collection after providing for refunds and States' share amounted to 24,306 crore in April-June 2004.

Corporate tax collection stood at Rs 3,950 crore till June compared to Rs 3,153 crore in the year-ago period.

Income Tax collection also grew by 74 per cent to Rs 10,482 crore during the first quarter of 2004-05 from Rs 6,011 crore in the same period last fiscal.

The Centre collected Rs 4,806 crore in June alone from income taxes. Indirect taxes witnessed flat growth with the Customs Duty collection dipping by 4 per cent while Excise growing by 13 per cent.

Customs collections have gone down to Rs 10,672 crore during April-June 2004 from Rs 11,107 crore in the same period last fiscal.

Excise collection stood at Rs 13,711 crore till June this fiscal compared to Rs 12,151 crore in the year-ago period.