Direct tax mop-up rises by 10.67 per cent in 11 months of FY15

Direct tax collections rose by 10.67 per cent to Rs 6.12 lakh crore in the first 11 months of the current 2014-15 financial year in line with the revised Budget projections.

As per the Budget for 2014-15, the revenue mop-up from direct taxes was targeted at Rs 7.36 lakh crore. It was, however, revised downwards to 7.05 lakh crore as per the revised estimate in the Union Budget for 2015-16, which was presented on Saturday (February 28) by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Thus, as per the revised estimates, the government expects a 10.5 per cent increase in direct tax collections over the previous financial year which was Rs 6.38 lakh crore.

During the April-February period of the FY14, the government had collected Rs 5.53 lakh crore under direct taxes.

As per the Budget estimate for 2014-15, the growth expected in direct tax mop-up was pegged at 16 per cent.

During the 11-month period, corporate tax collection grew by 9.99 per cent at Rs 3.79 lakh crore. It was Rs 3.45 lakh crore during the corresponding period of FY14.

Similarly, the personal Income Tax collection, rose by 11.10 per cent, at Rs 2.25 lakh crore in the April-February period as against Rs 2.02 lakh crore in the year-ago period.

Securities Transaction Tax (STT) collection surged by 45.44 per cent at Rs 6,280 crore in the 11-month period due to buoyancy in the stock market.

The net direct tax collection rose at a slower pace of 6.88 per cent to about Rs 5.06 lakh crore, as against Rs 4.74 lakh crore in the corresponding period of last year, primarily on account of higher refunds.

Jaitley has been talking about large number of refunds being given out by the Tax authorities. Advance tax collection has shown a growth of 13.41 per cent during April-February period 2014-15, as against the growth of 8.67 per cent shown at the same time previous year.

In the 11-month period of FY15, growth in TDS was 7.49 per cent as against 16.69 per cent in the corresponding period of last year. The self-assessment tax shows a growth of 22.50 per cent  in the reporting period as against 9.91 per cent in FY14. The growth in Regular Tax was 9.09 per cent as against 29.97 per cent.

For the current financial year, the government has revised downwards the total tax revenue (including indirect taxes) to Rs 12.51 lakh crore as against the Budget estimate of Rs 13.6 lakh crore.