Direct Tax Collections Rise Nearly 17% In April-September, Refunds Up 30%

Direct tax collections stood at Rs. 5.47 lakh crore in the first six months of the currency financial year, the government said on Thursday. That marked a year-on-year growth of 16.7 per cent in gross collections, provisional data showed. The Ministry of Finance also said that refunds during the half-year period rose 30.4 per cent to Rs.1.03 lakh crore. Net collections - after adjustment towards refunds - rose 14 per cent to Rs. 4.44 lakh crore, according to the provisional figures.

Gross collections under corporate income tax grew 19.5 per cent while those under personal income tax - including securities transaction tax - rose 19.1 per cent, the official release stated. After adjustment of refunds, net growth in corporate income tax and personal income tax stood at 18.7 per cent and 14.9 per cent respectively.

The government said it collected Rs 2.10 lakh crore as advance tax during this period - an increase of 18.7 per cent as against the corresponding period last year.

The finance ministry said that gross collections of the corresponding period of 2017-18 included "extraordinary collections under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS), 2016 amounting to Rs. 10,254 crore...which does not form part of the current year's collection". Launched in June 2016, the Income Declaration Scheme gave assessees to declare any income not declared correctly in past years.

Net direct tax collections represent 38.6 per cent of Rs 11.50 lakh crore of total Budget Estimates of direct taxes for financial year 2018-19, the finance ministry said. Growth in advance collections under corporate tax and personal income tax stood at 16.4 per cent and 30.3 per cent respectively.