Finance Ministry to hold important meeting on tax collection tomorrow

New Delhi: The Finance Ministry will hold a high-level meeting tomorrow to review the status of direct taxes collection facing an anticipated shortfall of about Rs 40,000 crore for the current financial year that ends this month. The meeting will be chaired by Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia along with Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairperson Atulesh Jindal and other members of the Board, a senior official said.

The official said the top Finance Ministry officers will interact with senior brass of the Income Tax department across the country via a video conferencing facility and not only review the collections till date but also frame a strategy to mop up as much revenue as possible in the last few days of the 2015-16 fiscal ending on March 31.

They said the thrust of CBDT and IT department is on collections under the regular tax category, collection of arrears and completion of scrutiny assessments so that more revenue could come into the kitty. As per data till February 13, the total collection from direct taxes stood at Rs 5.47 lakh crore which was 68.7 per cent of the budget target of Rs 7.96 lakh crore for the current fiscal.

The government anticipates a shortfall of about Rs 40,000 crore under the direct taxes category in the current fiscal. However, the shortfall is expected to be made good as the indirect tax revenues are likely to overshoot budget targets by a similar margin.