Meeting FY'12 revenue targets not easy: Fin secy

Amid apprehensions of a moderation in economic growth from the projected 9 per cent this fiscal, finance secretary Sunil Mitra said on Wednesday the revenue collection targets for the current fiscal will not be easy to achieve.

"Meeting the revenue collection targets in 2011-12 will not be an easy task to accomplish," Mitra said at the annual conference of chief commissioners and directors general of the Central Board of Excise and Customs in New Delhi.

He said to meet the Budget target, indirect tax collections should grow by 14.8 per cent this financial year.

"The impact of increased base effect (in the last fiscal) will only compound the

task," Mitra said.

The government has set the indirect tax collection target for the current fiscal at Rs 3.92 lakh crore (Rs 3.92 trillion) and for direct taxes at Rs 5.32 lakh crore (Rs 5.32 trillion).

Mitra said the country's economic growth rate is expected to be around 8.5 per cent.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in his Budget speech, had pegged the gross domestic product for the current fiscal at 9 per cent.

Direct tax collections during 2010-11 were higher than the revised Budget estimates by about Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) at Rs 3,24,824 lakh crore (Rs 3.2 trillion).

Similarly, direct tax collections were higher than the revised estimate at over Rs 3.46 lakh crore (Rs 3.46 trillion) in 2010-11.