FinMin may go slow on I-T refunds

Amid fears of slowdown in tax collection in the current fiscal, the Finance Ministry today indicated that it may go slow on disbursement of pending income tax (I-T) refunds.

The indication was given by Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra at the annual conference of chief commissioners and directors general of income tax here.

"The board's [CBDT] proposal to clear all pending refunds of the assessment years 2010-11 and 2011-12 will require to be moderated in keeping with the actual performance in direct tax collections," he said.

The revenue department is apprehending a slowdown in revenue collection on the back of rising inflation and moderation in domestic economic growth, which according to the RBI is likely to come down to 8% from 8.6% in 2010-11.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has provided a tax refund of Rs 73,000 crore in 2010-11 and Rs 23,000 crore in the first month of the current fiscal.

As per the Citizen's Charter of CBDT, the department "aspires" to issue of refund along with interest within six months in case of electronic filing and nine months for manual filings.

The government, according to Mitra, may miss the revenue collection targets as rising inflation and tight monetary policy has started impacting growth.

The gross tax collections during 2011-12 have been pegged at Rs 9.32 lakh crore, up from Rs 7.90 lakh crore realised during the previous fiscal.