3G boost to non-tax revenue

2 per cent rise in gross tax revenue, 9.3 per cent in total revenue receipts

In a year when India’s nominal Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, is expected to grow at 10.05 per cent, falling income tax and indirect duty collections, combined with abolition of certain taxes, has led Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to budget for a 2 per cent increase in the gross tax revenue receipts of the government in 2009-10.

Budget estimates for gross tax revenue receipts for this financial year are Rs 6,41,079 crore. After budgeting for Rs 1,64,361 crore as the states’ share, the total revenue receipts of the central government are expected to expand by 9.3 per cent to Rs 6,14,497 crore. This increase is on account of non-tax revenues, especially Rs 35,000 crore from auction of spectrum for the third generation of mobile telephony, which enables high-speed data transfer, increased dividends from state-owned financial institutions, and transfer of surplus from the Reserve Bank of India.

As surcharge on personal income tax, which was scrapped, is not shared with states, the centre’s total tax kitty is budgeted to increase at a lower rate in 2009-10 than that of the amount transferred to states.

Mukherjee’s budgeted revenue from 3G auction for the year is much higher than the Rs 25,000 crore expected by Telecommunications Minister A Raja. This higher estimate has raised the budgeted non-tax revenue for 2009-10 by nearly 46 per cent to Rs 1,40,279 crore. The RBI surplus is expected to rise 58 per cent to Rs 28,600 crore.

Corporation tax collection is expected to increase by 15.64 per cent in 2009-10 to Rs 2,56,725 crore over the revised estimates of Rs 2,22,000 crore for 2008-09. The impact of the higher income tax exemption limits is evident in the Budget estimates for 2009-10, which, at Rs 1,12,859 crore, are 5.5 per cent lower than last year’s revised estimates.

The impact of the economic slowdown is visible in the budgeted customs and excise duty collections, which will see a dip of 9.2 per cent (Rs 98,000 crore) and 1.7 per cent (Rs 1,06,477 crore), respectively.