The service tax collection from the Mumbai zone has missed the revised target by a whisker at Rs 81,599 crore, which is a growth of 18.8 per cent from Rs 68,696 crore a year ago, a senior official has said.

The Union Budget 2017 had set a target of Rs 76,300 crore from the Mumbai zone but this was revised upwards to Rs 83,000 crore.

The service tax department of Mumbai zone is responsible for over one-third of overall service tax collection from the entire country. “Our revenue mop-up increased 18.8 per cent to Rs 81,599 crore in the year gone by (FY16/17) over the previous year (FY15/16),” Chief Commissioner of service tax Piyusha Patnaik said.

“We were able to collect more revenue by taking several steps like tracking defaulters who had filed returns but couldn’t make payment, better handling of audit and above all, realisation of arrears,” he said.

Gross revenue collection by the department for March also grew 13.6 per cent at Rs 11,237 crore up from Rs 9,895 crore in the year-ago period.

Explaining the reasons for missing the target, he said the department had made refunds to the tune of Rs 1,435 crore during the year, which though was lower than Rs 1,505 crore refunds in the year ago.