Jaitley shares figures of increased direct/indirect tax collection

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said direct tax collection was up 12.01% at Rs 5.53 lakh crore during the April-December 2016 period as compared to revenue in the year-ago period, while indirect tax receipts soared 25% to Rs 6.30 lakh crore.He said excise collection was up 43% at Rs 2.79 lakh crore, while service tax rose 23.9% to Rs 1.83 lakh crore in the first 9 months of the current fiscal. Customs duty receipts were up 4.1% at Rs 1.67 lakh crore. Indirect tax collection in December was up 14.2% year-on-year, he said. The excise collection was up 31.6%, Jaitley said. Service tax receipts in December were also up 12.4%. Customs revenue dipped 6.3% as gold imports came down.When compared with tax collections in November, indirect tax receipts in December 2016 were up 12.8%, he said.VAT collections in most states too have shown an increase and they also received taxes in the old currency in November. All well administered states have seen rise in VAT collection even in November, he added.