Demonetisation impact: Direct tax collection up 19% at Rs 1.9 lakh cr

Direct tax collections jumped 19 per cent in the first four months of the current financial year as demonetisation of higher denomination currency brought in the number of individuals in the tax net.

Collections of direct taxes, which are made up of personal and corporate taxes, soared to Rs 1.90 lakh crore in April-July, an official statement said here.

The collection, net of refunds, was 19.5 per cent of the total Budget Estimate of direct taxes for 2017-18.

Corporate income tax grew 7.2 per cent in gross terms and personal income tax by 17.5 per cent.

"However, after adjusting for refunds, the net growth in corporate income tax collections is 23.2 per cent while that in personal income tax collections is 15.7 per cent," the statement said.

As much as Rs 61,920 crore of tax refunds have been issued during April-July, 5.1 per cent lower than issued in the same period of 2016-17.

Earlier this week, the government released the numbers of tax returns filed, showing demonetisation of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes had given the substantial growth.

The number of tax returns filed soared to 2.83 crore as against 2.27 crore in the previous year. The growth of 24.7 per cent this year compared with 9.9 per cent in the year-ago period. Individual tax returns filed were up 25.3 per cent at 2.79 crore.

"This clearly shows that a substantial number of new tax payers have been brought into the tax net subsequent to demonetisation," the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had said in a statement.

Direct tax collection in 2016-17, at Rs 8,49,818 crore, was 14.5 per cent higher than the previous year - highest growth since 2013-14.