Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, Chief Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise, Gujarat, D K Acharya said drastic fall in international price of high speed diesel (HSD) had severely hit the customs collection.

He said diesel price during the current financial year came down to US dollar 110 from 180 per metric tonne last year, thus hitting severely the customs earning. More than two-thirds of customs revenue from Kandla port came on account of petroleum products and more than 95 per cent of it is customs duty on diesel, he stated.

The closure of Kandla port for two months during June and July due to cyclone, economic and industrial recession and economic liberalisation leading to fall in prices of local products and customs duty reduction on a variety of import items were other factors, he added.

The total customs collection till December 31 during the current financial year has been merely Rs 4,355 crore against Rs 4,662 crore during the corresponding period during 1997-98, thus indicating a shortfall of Rs 307 crore. Going by the current economic scenario, it was difficult to achieve even the last year's figure of Rs 6,211 crore in Gujarat, Acharya said.

He said customs collection at Kandla customs commissionerate till December 31 during the current financial year was just Rs 2,281 crore against Rs 2,908 crore during the corresponding period in 1997-98, showing a fall of Rs 627 crore. However, Ahmedabad customs commissionerate's revenue was Rs 1,343 crore till December 31 during 1998-99, against Rs 858 crore during the corresponding period in 1997-98, thus registering a remarkable increase of Rs 485 crore, according to Acharya.

Acharya said despite economic slowdown and overall industrial recession, central excise to the tune of Rs 5,819 crore had been collected between April 1 and December 31 of 1998-99 against Rs 4,954 crore mopped up during the corresponding period in 1997-98. With barely three months left for the end of the current financial year, he said it was a Herculean task to meet the target of over Rs 8,000 crore but added that ``we will be very close to the target''.

He said a total of 3,000 cases of misuse of MODVAT facility involving excise evasion of Rs 205 crore had been detected through `MODVAT alert system'. He said the Central government had also set up a special task force for detecting large-scale MODVAT fraud. Acharya said a total of 1900 central excise assessees and 170 customs assessees had filed declarations under Kar Vivad Samadhan Scheme which would close on January 31.