Direct Tax Collection Increased by 15 % in 1st Querter 2014

Direct tax col­lec­tions in April-Sep­tem­ber increased just 7.09 per cent against a Bud­get tar­get of 15.31 per cent for 2014–15, as income tax refunds shot up 54.51 per cent dur­ing the peri­od. This is despite the fact that the sec­ond instal­ment of advance tax pay­ments has come to the kitty.

Tax col­lec­tions, net of refunds, stood at Rs 2,68,836 crore in the first six months of the cur­rent finan­cial year (FY15), com­pared to Rs 2,51,028 crore dur­ing the same peri­od in 2013–14, the Cen­tral Board of Direct Tax­es (CBDT) said in a press state­ment issued on Tuesday.

Refunds dur­ing the six-month peri­od this year rose to Rs 77,308 crore from Rs 50,035 crore in the year-ago peri­od. High­er refunds in the first half of the year are not unusu­al as tax offi­cers, under pres­sure to meet tar­get, per­suade tax­pay­ers to pay more in the last quarter.

Direct tax col­lec­tions, inclu­sive of refunds, in April-Sep­tem­ber 2014 were up 15 per cent and stood at Rs 3,46,144 crore, against Rs 3,01,063 crore col­lect­ed dur­ing the same peri­od last year.

“Gross col­lec­tions of cor­po­ra­tion tax has shown an increase of 15.31 per cent and stood at Rs 2,22,616 crore against Rs 1,93,054 crore col­lect­ed dur­ing the same peri­od last year,” the CBDTsaid.

Gross col­lec­tion of per­son­al income tax, includ­ing secu­ri­ties trans­ac­tion tax and wealth tax, was up by 14.37 per cent and stood at Rs 1,23,528 crore, against Rs 1,08,009 crore col­lect­ed in the cor­re­spond­ing peri­od of 2013–14.

Advance tax col­lec­tions post­ed a growth of 15.28 per cent dur­ing the first half of the year, against a 7.66 per cent growth in the year-ago peri­od, sig­nalling cor­po­ra­tions may report high­er net prof­it growth for the period.

Growth in tax deduc­tion at source dur­ing April-Sep­tem­ber this year was 9.47 per cent, low­er than the increase of 14.22 record­ed in the same peri­od last year.

The gov­ern­ment has pro­ject­ed its net direct tax col­lec­tions for 2014–15 at Rs 7,36,221 crore — an increase of 15.31 per cent over last year’s col­lec­tions of Rs 6,38,495 crore. Despite a slow­er growth in the first six months, the tar­get looks achiev­able con­sid­er­ing a growth of 14.29 per cent was post­ed last year as well. It should be high­er this year as the econ­o­my is pro­ject­ed to grow 5.9 per cent.