The commercial tax collection for West Bengal for 2007-08 is around Rs 9,300 crore, with value added tax (VAT) collections increasing by almost 16 per cent.

Last year, commercial tax collections, which includes, VAT, sales tax (on liquor and motor spirit) and central sales tax (CST), in the state was Rs 8,092 crore.

In 2007-08, total VAT collections were Rs 6,000 crore, against Rs 5,100 crore the previous year, said H K Dwivedi, commissioner of commercial taxes, government of West Bengal at an interactive session at Merchants' Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata on Monday.

The VAT collections had been witnessing a robust increase of about 26 per cent till October 2008, after which the economic downturn adversely impacted tax collections, he added.

The state government is also taking steps for faster refunds, and for the fiscal 2005-06, the process had already been completed, said Dwivedi.

While the industry body pegs the pending refunds amount at Rs 400 crore, the tax commissioner has assessed the refunds at much lower levels.

According to Dwivedi, between 2005-2008 (September), the refunds would be "far lower than Rs 100 crore."

The government is also taking steps to simplify the process of filing returns and electronic registration of the dealers.