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FICCI study: Services exports jump 105 per cent in FY05
New Delhi: Services exports have jumped by a whopping 105% to touch $51.3bn in FY05, compared to $24.9bn in FY04.

High value services like communication, construction, financial, news agencies, royalty, copyright, licence fee and management mainly contributed to acceleration in services exports, according to a FICCI study. Exports of these high value categories rose by more than four times from $4.7bn in FY04 to $22.5bn in FY05.

The performance of the services sector resulted in the ratio of external trade in goods and services to GDP zooming to 41.5% in FY05 from 31.3% in FY04, the study on fundamental shift in external sector growth said.

The rise in the ratio by 10.2% during FY05 stands in contrast to the ratio, which rose by 13.2% in 13 years from 18.1% in 1991-92 to 31.3% in '03-04, the study said. The significance of the growth in services exports in '04-05 can be gauged from the fact that it took six years for it to double from $9.4bn in 1997-98 to $20.8bn in FY03. -

According to the study, the growth of services exports was 21.1% in '02-03 and 20.2% in '03-04. Overall exports of goods and services went up from $89.7bn in '03-04 to $132.2bn in '04-05, an increase of 47.4%, the study said, highlighting that growth in exports of goods and services has never exceeded 20% in the last 15 years since 1991-92.

Software exports went up by 41.8% to $17.3bn in '04-05, the highest increase in the last four years, according to the study.

Other important services whose export numbers improved sharply include tourism (22% to $5bn), transportation (54.8% increase to $5bn) and insurance service exports (141.9% increase to 1bn $), the study said.
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CBDT: Direct tax collections up 32 per cent in Q1
New Delhi: Direct tax collections have increased by 32 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal to about Rs 16,000 crore, a top Finance Ministry official has said.

"This increase has come even after a more than 7 per cent drop in the personal income-tax collections during the April-June period of the current year," Berjinder Singh, Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), told reporters on the sidelines of the 21st Annual Conference of Chief Commissioners and Director-General of Income-Tax here on Thursday.

While the corporate tax collection for the April-June 2005 period stood at about Rs9,000 crore, the personal income-tax collection stood at about Rs7,000 crore.

"The main reason why personal income-tax has come down this quarter is the readjustment of income tax slabs undertaken in this year's budget. Besides the scaling up of tax brackets, a consolidated limit of Rs1 lakh for savings in addition to the basic exemption limits was also granted. All this is impacting the personal income tax collections," he said. The CBDT Chairman, however, expressed confidence that the department would be able to make up for the shortfall by September.

For 2005-06, the Government has budgeted direct tax revenues at Rs1,76,812 crore (personal income-tax of Rs66,239 crore and corporate income-tax of Rs1,10,573 crore).
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