Monday, April 25 2005 22:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Total tax collections stood at Rs 3,03,856 crore in 2004-05, marginally falling short of the revised estimate of Rs 3,05,314 crore mainly due to lowering of excise duty on petro products and lower income tax owing to under-recovery from oil PSUs.

Indirect Tax collections grew by over 16 per cent to Rs 1,71,131 crore, exceeding the revised estimate of Rs 1,71,120 crore in the previous fiscal, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said releasing the figures.

However, direct taxes, though grew by 26 per cent to Rs 1,32,725 crore, fell short by a little over one per cent of the revised target of Rs 1,34,194 crore mainly due to lower collections from the banks and under-recoveries from the oil PSUs.

"I am happy with the collections but not satisfied. As of personal income tax, I am disappointed," Chidambaram said, adding that the Government should have collected more.

Personal Income Tax collections grew by about 17 per cent to Rs 48,321 crore in 2004-05, but it was only 94.88 per cent of the revised estimate of Rs 50,929 crore for the year.

Taxes from India Inc grew by about 32 per cent to Rs 83,581 crore during 2004-05, exceeding the revised estimate of Rs 83,000 crore.

In the indirect taxes, customs collections grew by about 19 per cent to Rs 57,645 crore, well over the revised target of Rs 56,250 crore, which itself was up by Rs 2,000 crore.

However, the twin cuts in the duties for petro-products in June and August resulted in only 9.29 per cent growth in excise mop up of Rs 99,352 crore, which was only 98.64 per cent of the revised target of Rs 1,00,720 crore.

Service Tax collections were almost on dot with a mop up of Rs 14,134 crore, which was short of the target of Rs 14,150 crore by a mere Rs 16 crore.

Though the service tax collection ticked over 79 per cent growth during 2004-05, it still constituted a small percentage of total tax collections.

The mop up from Wealth Tax and the new Securities Transaction Tax accounted for Rs 823 crore, merely Rs 600 crore coming from STT in six months of its introduction from October 1.

Regarding collection of arrears, which has been a source of concern for the Government, Chidambaram said Government had collected a tidy sum of Rs 9,725 crore during 2004-05 an increase of Rs 3,474 crore from the previous fiscal.

"We had not fixed any target for 2004-05. I had said we will collect a tidy sum and what is achieved last year is a tidy growth," Chidambaram said.