Goa will soon have two separate commissionerates for central excise and customs, to keep up with the increasing volume of tax generated in the state. "The composite commissionerate will be bifurcated in a month's time, and the state will have a separate commissioner for central excise and service tax and a full-fledged office and commissioner for customs," said V P C Rao, commissioner for central excise and customs.

The commissionerate celebrated National Central Excise Day on Monday. Incidentally, 2014 is also the golden jubilee year for the composite commissionerate, which was established in 1963.

"While the commissionerate's annual revenue from central excise is usually close to 450 crore, we do not expect to collect more than 400 crore this year, which was a low growth period. However, our collection of service tax has seen a boost, and we expect revenue of 500 crore from this avenue," said Rao. India earns 1.75 lakh crore from central excise annually.

He added that the commissionerate had recorded revenue of 950 crore from customs duty in 2012-2013. " This was also a low figure; when mining was on in full swing, we collected 4,000 crore from customs alone, every year," Rao said.

Goa's biggest tax assesses are the iron and steel industries, followed by the pharmaceutical industry, Rao said.

On the occasion, the commissionerate awarded its best tax assesses -toothpaste manufacturers Colgate Palmolive India was honoured for paying central excise of 59.22 crore in 2013-14, a figure doubled from its 2011-12 payment of 26 crore. Hotel Grand Hyatt was also awarded for bringing in a large amount of business in terms of events and conferences, and for its service tax contribution.