For the second year in a row, Ahmedabad zone of central excise and service tax department collected lower service tax than expected. Against the target of Rs 5,413 crore for fiscal 2014-15, service tax department collected Rs 5,226 crore, falling short by Rs 187 crore.

However, the service tax collections have gone up by 5.11% on year-on-year basis from Rs 4,972 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 5,226 crore in 2014-15.

Ports, telecom, petroleum and construction sector companies were the major contributors to service tax collections.

"The collections this time have been good, we could reach near the target. It fell short because every year the target for collections is increased by 10%-15% by the central board," said a service tax official.

With economy showing signs of improvement, excise duty collections registered a noticeable growth of 20% at Rs 10,027 crore in 2014-15 compared to Rs 8,358 crore in 2013-14. Against the target of Rs 9,125 crore, excise duty collections went up by Rs 902 crore, an increase of 9.88%.

Major part of excise came from oil, motor spirit, ceramic products, cement, iron and steel machinery, edible oil, tobacco and soda ash manufacturers.

The Ahmedabad zone covers entire north, central and Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Rajkot commissionerate was the biggest contributor in both service tax and excise collections.

In 2014-15, rebate/refund of Rs 1,492 crore and Rs 195 crore was issued by excise and service tax departments respectively.

The central excise and service tax department detected evasion of worth Rs 165 crore in excise duty and service tax in 2014-15 (till February 2015) in Ahmedabad zone. As many as 10 people were held by the central agency for evasion.

The official added, "Both service tax and excise departments will intensify the raids against evaders of revenue."

Top service tax paying firms in Gujarat

Adani Ports & SEZ Vodafone West Ltd Reliance Port & Terminal Ltd (Port division) Gujarat State & Petronet Ltd Larsen & Toubro Ltd JMC Projects (India) Ltd Vadinar Oil & Terminal Ltd BSNL (Ahmedabad division) Essar Oil Mundra International Container Terminal

Top excise paying companies in Gujarat

Essar Oil Ltd Urmin Products Pvt Ltd Vishnu Packaging Nirma Ltd Bhavnagar Tata Chemicals Ultratech Cement Ltd Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd Vishnu Tobacco Product Adani Gas Ltd Jaypee Gujarat Cement Ltd