Due to halt in the mining activities, customs duty collection in the State in April-December period this fiscal has downed by Rs953.05 crore. A total of custom duty of Rs1,353.76 crore was collected during the period against Rs2,306.81 crore collected in the corresponding period of the last year. The Central Excise revenue, however, in the same period registered a growth of 51.52 per cent, while services tax revenue posted an expansion of 11 per cent. Overall revenue (Central Excise, Customs and Service tax) in the nine-month period stood at Rs5,900.98 crore, an increase of 4.67 per cent from Rs5,637.37 crore collected in the same period last fiscal.
Addressing a news conference here on Monday Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax, Bhubaneswar Zone Chief Commissioner S K Panda said customs duty collection in the Stated declined due to less export of iron ore from the ports, which was caused by closure of mines. He said steps are being taken to fill up the gap by raising revenue collection from service taxes. He informed that the service tax collection up to December stood at Rs1,350.25 crore against Rs1,220.52 crore collected up to December in the last fiscal.
“The total anti-evasion detection of 20 number of cases amounting to Rs368.17 crore have been made during the period whereas in 36 number of cases an amount of Rs14.66 crore have been realised,” Panda said. Similarly, revenue also came from audit detection, adjudication of cases, provisional assessment, call book cases and closure of audit paras, he said.
Replying to a question, Panda said a Customs Commissionerate has opened in the State in October 2014 which would ensure that the duty are properly collected from the export of materials through ports. He also said the department has put in service four boats, including two high speed ones, for detecting import and exports of smuggled goods.