Orissa sets VAT target at Rs 4028cr

Encouraged by the buoyancy observed in the sales tax and value added tax collection during the past few years, the Orissa government targets to collect Rs 4028 crore VAT during 2007-08. 

The government has collected Rs 376.77 crore by May 2007, which is 9.36 percent of the budget estimates for the current fiscal. 

According to state finance minister Prafulla Ghadei, the actual collections during 2005-06 and 2006-07 were more than the budget estimate. He said, in 2005-06 the total collections from sales tax/value added tax and central sales tax (CST) were Rs 3029.32 crore. 

This was Rs 889.32 crore more than the budget estimate for that year. The trend continued in 2006-07 with the total collections from these heads provisionally put at Rs.3812.55 crore. 

This was also about Rs. 995 crore more than the budget estimates.While the tax and non-tax revenue collections for 2005-06 was estimated at Rs.5071.29 crore, the actual achievement was Rs. 6534.18 crore , which exceeded the target by about Rs.1462 crore. 

The collection from this source was estimated at Rs.6452.99 crore in 2006-07. However, according to the provisional figures available from the Orissa office of Accountant General, the total collection was Rs.8166.64 crore. This is about Rs. 1713 crore more than the budget estimate for the year, the minister said. The minister said the collections from professional taxes increased by Rs 7crore in 2006-07 compared to the previous year. 

However, growth was not satisfactory. Professional tax is collected from salaried employees of state and central government, public sector undertakings and companies.