Excise revenue bucks declining trend, growth seen above 10% this fiscal

AMID FALTERING OVERALL tax collections so far in FY26 (2025-26), Union excise duty collections are poised to reverse the recent declining trend.

- KULDEEP SINGH

The government, in the Union Budget for FY26, estimated excise duty collections at ₹3.17 lakh crore, implying a modest on-year growth of 5.57% over the provisional collections of FY25. However, actual collections grew 9.25% on-year during April-November 2025 (against -0.61% in the same period of FY25). This strong performance means the required growth rate for the remaining four months (December-March) is only about 0.4% to meet the Budget target.