Direct tax revenue grows 19% in Apr-July to Rs 1.90 lakh cr

Direct tax collection registered a steady growth of 19.1 per cent in the first four months of the current fiscal to Rs 1.90 lakh crore.
The collection for the April-July period is 19.5 per cent of the Rs 9.80 lakh crore target from this segment for the entire 2017-18.
"Direct tax collection during the said period, net of refunds, stands at Rs 1.90 lakh crore which is 19.1 per cent higher than the net collections for the corresponding period of last year," a finance ministry statement said.
The collection of direct tax, which consist of personal income tax and corporate tax, continue to register "steady growth", it said.

In April-July of last fiscal, 2016-17, the direct tax collection had grown 24.01 per cent to Rs 1.59 lakh crore.
In gross terms, the growth rate for corporate income tax is 7.2 per cent, while that for personal income tax (including securities transaction tax) is 17.5 per cent for April-July period of the current fiscal.

However, after adjusting for refunds, the net growth in corporate tax collections is 23.2 per cent while that in personal income tax collections is 15.7 per cent.
Refunds amounting to Rs 61,920 crore have been issued during April-July, 2017 which are 5.1 per cent lower than the refunds issued during the corresponding period of 2016-17.

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

In 2016-17, the government collected over Rs 8.49 lakh crore in direct taxes, 14.5 per cent higher than the previous year. The growth rate was highest since 2013-14.