NEW DELHI : Indirect tax collections rose 36.5 per cent in April-August to over Rs 2.63 lakh crore, suggesting that the underlying momentum in the economy is strong, the Finance Ministry said.
“The GDP and indirect tax numbers seem to suggest that directionally economy is recovering,” Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian told reporters.
At the end of April-August, excise duty collections stood at over Rs 1.02 lakh crore, Customs at Rs 85,138 crore and service tax at Rs 75,006 crore. “When tax collections are growing at over double digits, it suggests that the underlying tax base or the nominal GDP seems to be healthy and moving upwards,” Subramanian said.
The indirect tax collection reflects hike in excise duty on diesel and petrol, withdrawal of exemptions for motor vehicles, increase in clean energy cess and the hike in service tax rate in June.
Subramanian said that stripped of all these measures, the April-August tax collection grew at 12.2 per cent, which “continues to suggest a healthy growth in the underlying tax base”.
The government has budgeted to collect over Rs 6.47 lakh crore from indirect taxes in the current fiscal.
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Govt OKs offshore wind energy policy
The Cabinet gave its approval to the offshore wind energy policy which will pave the way for setting up projects in seaward distance of up to 200 nautical miles.
The move is in line with the government’s target to install 60,000 MW of wind energy capacity by 2022. The off-shore wind energy farms are generally located with oil rigs or other installations.
The off-shore energy farms are capable of generating 50 percent more energy per turbine than land based ones due to the consistent wind speeds.
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