Direct Tax collections till Sept up by 16.7%

The provisional figures of Direct Tax collections up to September (half-yearly figures) witnessed gross collections worth Rs. 5.47 lakh crore which is 16.7 per cent higher than the gross collections for the corresponding period of last year.

It is pertinent to mention that gross collections of the corresponding period of fiscal year 2017-18 also included extraordinary collections under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) 2016 amounting to Rs 10,254 crore (third and last instalment of IDS), which does not form part of the current year's collection.

Refunds amounting to Rs 1.03 lakh crore have been issued during April to September, which is 30.4 per cent higher than refunds issued during the same period in the preceding year. Net collections (after adjusting for refunds) have increased by 14 per cent to Rs 4.44 lakh crore during April to September. The net Direct Tax collections represent 38.6 per cent of the total budget estimates of direct taxes for fiscal year 2018-19 (Rs 11.50 lakh crore).

So far as the growth rate for Corporate Income Tax (CIT) and Personal Income Tax (PIT) is concerned, the growth rate of gross collections for CIT is 19.5 per cent while that for PIT (including STT) is 19.1 per cent. After adjustment of refunds, the net growth in CIT collections is 18.7 per cent and 14.9 per cent in PIT collections.

An amount of Rs 2.10 lakh crore has been collected as Advance Tax, which is 18.7 per cent higher than the Advance Tax collections during the corresponding period of last year. The growth rate of Corporate Advance Tax is 16.4 per cent and that of PIT advance tax is 30.3 per cent.