Direct taxes for 11 months, at Rs 7.44 lakh cr, grow 20% YoY

In line with the recent upward trend, India's direct tax collections for 11 months of the ongoing fiscal at a net of Rs 7.44 lakh crore grew at 19.5 per cent over the corresponding period of 2016-17, according to figures released by the Finance Ministry on Thursday.

The net direct tax collections up to February represent 74.3 per cent of the revised estimates of direct taxes for the financial year 2017-18 at Rs 10.05 lakh crore, the ministry said.

"Gross collections (before adjusting for refunds) have increased by 14.5 per cent to Rs 8.83 lakh crore during April 2017 to February 2018," a statement said.

"Refunds amounting to Rs 1.39 lakh crore have been issued during April 2017 to February 2018."

Providing a break-up of the composition, the ministry said the growth rate for net corporate tax collections during the period under consideration is 19.7 per cent, while that for personal income tax is 18.6 per cent.

In this connection, presenting the budget for the next fiscal last month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made a significant announcement of fiscal slippage with implications for pushing inflation, revising upwards the government's fiscal deficit target for 2017-18 to 3.5 per cent of the GDP, or the equivalent of Rs 5.95 lakh crore.

The higher target came in place of the 3.2 per cent -- or Rs 5.46 lakh crore -- for the current fiscal announced earlier.

--IANS

bc/nir/dg