Direct tax collection target scaled down in budget; new slabs to benefit taxpayers: CBDT chairman

The direct tax collection target has been downward revised to Rs 11.80 lakh crore in the Union Budget after making a "realistic assessment" of various economic factors, a top government official said.

The set target for revenue collection (personal income tax, corporate tax and others) was Rs 13.35 lakh crore for the 2019-20 financial year that ends on March 31.

"Those (earlier) estimates have been revised in the budget and our new target would be about Rs 11.80 lakh crore which I am pretty confident that we will achieve it,"CBDT Chairman P C Mody told PTI in a post-budget interview.

Asked about the reasons for the recalibration of the target, Mody said, "It was just a realistic assessment of what is achievable and also it has to be taken into account that we have had a lot of revenue forgone."
"It is a realistic assessment of the whole system."
"We are very very hopeful (of achieving the revised target) because past experience shows that the last quarter (January-March) is the period when the maximum revenue comes in."
New I-T slabs
"First this was attempted when we tried to lower the corporate rate tax (last year). This time (personal income tax), it has been provided that you can avail the new tax structure rate only if you forego deductions or exemptions."
NRI Tax
"Now, in such cases of Indian citizens who are resorting to this system we are putting a provision that if they are not resident of any tax jurisdiction then they will be treated to be a deemed resident of this country."