Excise and taxation department aims to collect nearly Rs 1 crore tax from cracker on this Diwali sellers and Rs 42 lakh tax has already been received from a few of the wholesalers.

The one-time fee for setting up stalls in the allocated sites for small stalls has also been increased from the last years Rs 5,000 to more than Rs 10,000. The exact figure is yet to be worked out, but it will be more than Rs 10,000 for small stall, said deputy excise and taxation commissioner (DETC) Parampal Singh. For the bigger stalls, the fee has been increased to from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000.

We aim to double the tax collection this time and I am sure it will be done comfortably, said Singh. In 2008-09, however, only Rs 30 lakh tax was collected from cracker dealers and last year it was over Rs 50 lakh.

According to sources, the excise department has asked dealers to increase MRP of crackers. Dealers usually set their own rates while the prices printed on the boxes would be meager. The excise departments move is an effort to correct the under valuation.

The department has also issued strict instructions to cracker dealers for making VAT mandatory else they will be penalised. It has also been learns that two wholesalers alone had paid an additional tax of Rs 12 lakh this year as compared to their last years returns.

Though crackers would be costlier this year, sellers are hoping they would be able to sell more.