Tax collection increased in April-November despite demonetisation, says Jaitley

Arun Jaitley, in a press conference, said regardless of demonetisation-led cash crunch, the collection of both direct and indirect taxes is up in April-November 2016 as compared to 2015.

"Those reports and figures (saying tax collection would go down) were all panic numbers, the numbers I'm giving you are real. Even economic affairs secretary kept saying there was no need to panic," Jaitley said.

Accoding to Jaitley, for April-November 2016, overall direct tax collection is 12.01 percent higher than in the same period in 2015. Overall collection of indirect taxes is up as much as 25% in April-November 2016, from the comparable year-ago period.

He also said that of the total tax collected in April-November 2016, central excise tax collection is up 43%, service tax collection is up 23.9% and customs duty tax collection is up 4.1%. All these increases are from taxes collected in the year-ago period.

According to preliminary data for December 2016 - a month after the high-value note ban and through the cash shortage period - total indirect tax collection rose 14.2 percent in December 2016 from the comparable year-ago period.

However, customs duty tax collected has declined to -6.3 percent compared to December 2015. “This is primarily because gold imports fell,” Jaitley said.

In addition, in December 2016, indirect tax collection rose 12.8 percent compared with a month earlier.

"In November, it was being suggested that the demonetisation impact would be more in December, but even indirect tax collection rose," the minister said.

"Another thing to remember, the collection estimate for November 2016 - when taxes could be paid in old currency - indicates that VAT must have been paid in old currency. So VAT collection is also up post demonetisation," Jaitley said