Addressing the members of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said as against the Rs. 50,200 crore target set for 2007-08, collections had already touched Rs. 21,891 crore between April and September 2007 against Rs. 15,997 crore in the same period in 2006-07. We expect collections to surpass the target by a good margin. While Maharashtra topped with the highest collections, States like West Bengal, which normally lagged behind the national average growth rate of 36 per cent in collections, have also begun doing well.

In the first half of 2007-08, West Bengal collected Rs. 1,102 crore of service tax against Rs. 840 crore in the same period in 2006-07, a growth rate of 31 per cent.

He said since its introduction in 1994, service tax collections had increased from Rs. 400 crore to Rs. 37,481 crore in 2006-07. The total number of services taxed had increased from the initial three to 100 now with a total assessee base of nine lakh.