Post News Network
Bhubaneswar: The state government has enhanced its annual excise revenue target by Rs 100 crore for the year 2015-16 following the hike in VAT of alcoholic products.
The excise revenue target set this year was Rs 2,500 crore, according to sources. However, this has been revised to Rs 2,600 after VAT on alcoholic products was hiked from 25 per cent to 35 per cent in December 2015, they said. This would generate an additional 140 crore per annum for the state, sources said.
The state government has collected Rs 2,244.93 crore as excise revenue this fiscal till the end of December 2015, according to the latest data available with the excise department. This is Rs 435 crore more than the amount collected in the same period of 2014-15. Moreover, the collected amount is 89 per cent of the total target. However, like in the past two years, the state government is likely to miss its annual revenue collection target from mining activities.
The state has set a target of collecting Rs 6,626 crore in this fiscal, of which the steel and mines department has been able to collect Rs 3,869 crore till the end of December. As such, there are only three months left to collect the remaining Rs 2,757 crore.
The mining revenue was Rs 3,084 crore in the corresponding period of the previous financial year. The sharp fall in the price of iron ore in the international market and the delay in mining operations in the state has led to the fall in mining revenue collection, steel and mines minister Prafulla Mallik said Sunday. The state government is taking all steps to meet the revenue collection target from the mining sector, he said.
The state government had also failed to achieve the target during the last two financial years. The state had collected Rs 5,186 crore against the target of Rs 6,346 crore in 2014-15, while in 2013-14 it collected Rs 5,510 crore against the target of Rs 6,600 crore.
