Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 30, 2015 :

Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), the subsidiary of coal major, Coal India, has emerged as the top payer of central excise duty in Odisha. The public sector unit paid a whopping Rs 1621 crore in 2014-15 against a payment of Rs 1033.72 crore in 2013-14, according to chief commissioner, central excise, customs and service tax, Susant Kumar Panda.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Panda said, Bhubaneswar Zone’s collection of indirect taxes has shot up to Rs 8424 crore in 2014-15 up by 5% against the precious fiscal at Rs 8032.81 crore.

Panda also informed that after MCL, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), a unit of SAIL, ranks second in the list contributing Rs 540.39 crore as the central excise duty while Bhushan Steel Ltd of Angul ranks third with central excise duty payout pegged at Rs 356.14.

The other top ten contributors of central excise duty in the state are Rengali based Bhushan Steel & Power (Rs 262 crore), Nalco (Rs 171 crore), Jindal Steel & Power (Rs 135.89 crore), OCL India (Rs 129 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 93 crore), Ultratech Cement (Rs 80 crore) and Brahmani River Pellets Limited (Rs 72 crore).

Central Excise duty collection has recorded an increase of 36% in 2014-15 against the previous fiscal.

Giving a breakup of the tax collected in 2014-15, Panda said Rs 4680.09 crore has been collected towards Central Excise Duty, Rs 1871.66 crore towards Customs duty and Rs 1872.45 crore towards Service Tax.

He said that in the field of Service Tax, there has been 99% target achievement adding that the marginal shortfall was due to the depressed market conditions in the mining sector.

There are 45,000 tax payers under Bhubaneswar zone, Panda said and hoped that it would cross one lakh. Only 245 Service Tax payers have contributed to 67% of the total Service tax collected, he pointed out and said efforts are being made to bring more number of taxpayers under Service Tax.

In 48 cases of tax evasion traced during 2014-15, evasion to the tune of Rs 484.52 crore was detected and out of that Rs 22.28 crore has been recovered, Panda said.

Tax fraud to the tune of Rs 652.61 crore was detected during audit out of which Rs 49.83 crore has been recovered.

Panda said Rs 121.33 crore was collected in Bhubaneswar zone towards arrear tax dues.

By contributing Rs 104.06 crore towards Service Tax, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has topped the list among Service Tax payers in the zone in the year 2014-15.

With a contribution of Rs 88.93 crore and Rs 66.42 crore, Paradip Port Trust and Triveni Earthmovers have ranked second and third respectively.