Within six months of the conference of chief commissioners of Customs and Excise held here, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has once again sent out missives to top officers across the country to assemble in the Capital next week to deliberate on measures that could pep up revenue collection . The CBEC's concern stems from the fact that the indirect tax collection is way below expectation and the shortfall in mop-up could be as high as Rs 40,000 crore from the budget estimates of Rs 5.1 lakh crore for 2012-13 .

Though the CBEC chairman exuded confidence that the budget target will be met, the collection figure belies the claim. In April-October indirect tax collection was Rs 2.6 lakh crore, a growth of 17% as against an average target of 27% required to meet the budget estimate.

The convening of the chief commissioners conference twice in a year, which is extraordinary , signifies the unease in the revenue department over the slow growth in tax collection . The sluggish manufacturing has made adequate dent on the excise collection, which stood at Rs 95,000 crore as against the fiscal year target of 1.9 lakh crore. Growth in revenue from customs duty during April-October was Rs 92,000 crore and from service tax was Rs 70,000 crore.