The hike in rates of excise and customs duty in the Budget has given the revenue department the much required push in bridging the gap to meet revised indirect tax estimates of Rs 244,477 crore for the current financial year ending March 31.

Sources said the estimates made by Central Board of Excise and Customs for March puts indirect tax collection at Rs 33,100 crore in the last month of this fiscal. The jump is mainly on account of better excise mop up which is likely to rise by 33% and huge Customs duty collection, 80% higher than the same period last year.

As of February, the total collection in indirect taxes was at Rs 2.09 lakh crore, nearly Rs 35,000 crore short of the revised estimates.

The revenue department is hopeful of getting the remaining Rs 2,000 crore from cess collected by other departments.

Though the exact indirect tax collection figures will be available only at the end of the month, sources said CBEC is hopeful of getting Rs 11,800 crore in excise, Rs 10,500 crore towards Customs and Rs 10,800 crore towards service tax in March 2010.

Government had revised gross tax revenue at Rs 6.33 lakh crore for 2009-10 from its initial budget estimates of Rs 6.41 lakh crore. In 2008-09 the collection was Rs 6.05 lakh crore. The downfall is mainly on account of less Customs and service tax collection.