Direct tax receipts grow 12.9% in April-December 2014

The income tax depart­ment col­lect­ed R5.5 lakh crore from cor­po­rate, per­son­al and wealth tax­es in the April-Decem­ber peri­od of this fis­cal, 12.9% more than what it had col­lect­ed in the same peri­od a year ago. Due to tax refunds, net direct tax receipts, how­ev­er, grew at a slow­er pace of 7.41% to R4.48 lakh crore. For the full year, the gov­ern­ment has a 15.7% growth tar­get for gross direct tax receipts. 

Receipts from secu­ri­ties trans­ac­tion tax (STT) grew 43.4% in the same peri­od to R4,940 crore. Col­lec­tions by way of advance tax grew 13% while receipts by way of tax deduct­ed at source grew at 7.84% in the first three quarters.

While direct tax col­lec­tion growth is in dou­ble dig­its, indi­rect tax receipts growth is far behind the 20% growth tar­get set for the cur­rent year.

Excise, cus­toms and ser­vice tax col­lec­tion grew by just 6.7% in the April-Decem­ber peri­od as man­u­fac­tur­ing activ­i­ties remained mut­ed. To raise indi­rect tax rev­enue, the gov­ern­ment recent­ly increased excise duty on petrol.