Tax mop-up rises 19.7% on year in Jan

Central government' s gross tax collections rose 19.7% on year to 1.77 trln rupee sin January, the Controller General of Accounts said.

This is the fourth consecutive month tax collections have grown in double digits. The collections had risen 49.4% in December , 23.0% in November and 16.9% in October , helping narrow the contraction in the cumulative mop-up.

The rise was mainly due to a jump in excise duty collections, which rose 85.1% to 395 bln rupee sin January. This is on account of the hike in duty on petrol and diesel in May.

The cumulative tax collections continued to be in negative territory because of the sharp fall in the initial months of the year due to the lockdown.

The tax collections in Apr-Jan contracted 1% on year to 15.151 trln rupees.

According to the revised estimate, the total tax collection target for 2020-21( AprMar) is 19.002 trln rupe es, down 5.5% f rom 20.101 tr ln rupees collected last year.