New Delhi: The direct tax collection duringthe first nine months of the current fiscal increased by 12.93 per cent to Rs 5.46 lakh crore over the same period a year ago. The growth rate of direct tax collections, however, is still short of annual target of 16 per cent. During the April-December period of last fiscal, the government had collected Rs 4.84 lakh crore.
As per the Budget 2014-15, the revenue mop up from direct tax is targeted at Rs 7.36 lakh crore for the current fiscal. During the nine-month period, corporate tax collection grew by 12.79 per cent at Rs 3.50 lakh crore. It was Rs 3.10 lakh crore during the corresponding period of last fiscal. Similarly, the personal Income Tax collection, was up by 12.62 per cent, at Rs 1.90 lakh crore in the April-December period as against Rs 1.69 lakh crore in the same period last year.
Securities Transaction Tax (STT) collection surged by 43.44 per cent at Rs 4,940 crore in the nine-month period due to buoyancy in the stock market. The net direct tax collection rose at a lower pace of 7.41 per cent to about Rs 4.48 lakh crore, as against Rs 4.17 lakh crore in the same period last year, primarily on account of higher refunds. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been talking about large number of refunds being given out by the Tax authorities.
The government has also said that actual tax mobilisation through direct and indirect taxes in current financial year would depend on factors such as growth in GDP and performance of the economy in the remaining part of the current fiscal. In the current fiscal, the government has budgeted to collect over Rs 13.6 lakh crore as tax revenue, which requires a 16 per cent growth in direct taxes and 20 per cent growth in indirect taxes to meet the target.
The economic growth is projected to be in the range of 5.4-5.9 per cent in the current fiscal. The economic growth in first half (April-September) of this fiscal was 5.5 per cent.
