"The situation in August this year is not expected to improve much, which will leave the customs collection for the period April-August, much below the fixed target," he added.

Recording a figure of Rs 14,232 crore, customs collection up to July this year had grown by only 10.99 per cent as compared to the same period last year.

According to a top revenue department official, bulk of this came from the rising international crude oil prices.

The budget estimate for customs collection in 1999-2000 has been placed at Rs 50,369 crore--23.1 per cent higher than the collection of Rs 40,917 crore last year. The revenue department official said that looking at thecurrent trends, it will be difficult to achieve the target in coming months.

Incidentally, the Central Board of Excise andCustoms (CBEC), had rung an alarm bell in July for improving the customs duty collection. Chief commissioners were asked to present the pattern of imports and reasons for relatively lower growth with steps which can be taken to improve the collections in coming months.

The zone-wise comparative position up to June this year as compared to last year witnessed a sluggish growth which was much less than the overall estimated growth of 23 per cent for the whole year.

The biggest customs house, Mumbai, recorded a growth of 6.7 per cent, Calcutta--5.8 per cent, and Chennai--11.3 per cent, for the period. Even the other commissionerates, including the major Airports and ICDs, the collection trend was not uniform.

Some of them, having large estimates like Sahar Air Cargo Complex and Bangalore Customs have shown a downward trend.

CBEC is now working on the steps suggested by the chief commissioners to improve the situation in the last two quarters of the current financial year.

On the excise front, theofficial said that collections may slide marginally due to August being the monsoon month. "There may be a slide as the clearances are normally less in August," he said. However, the excise collection may not fall short of the target fixed for the first five months of 1999-2000 as we were ahead of the target up to July, he said.

Excise collections touched Rs 17,241 crore during the period April-July 1999--22 per cent higher than the last year's collection for the same period.

The budget estimate for 1999-2000 in case of excise is placed at Rs 63,565 crore--21.8 per cent higher than the last year's collection.

On the direct tax side, though income tax collections are expected to maintain the impressive growth of around 20 per cent in the first five months of the current fiscal, Corporate tax collection, on account of huge refunds, will continue playing the spoilsport in direct tax collection for the period April-August.

Corporate tax collection went down by 41.39 per cent in the first four months ofthe current fiscal, resulting in a fall in total direct tax collection to Rs 7,311 crore up to July, against Rs 8,483 crore last year in the four-month period.