Direct tax mop up sees 15 per cent jump

New Delhi: The government has collected Rs 4.39 lakh crore in direct taxes in the first seven months of the current financial year. This represents a 15.2 per cent jump in direct tax revenue till October on a year-on-year basis. 

The tax collection, which includes personal income tax and corporate tax, represents 44.8 per cent of the total Budget Estimates of Rs 9.8 lakh crore in direct taxes for 2017-18.

The gross collections (before adjusting for refunds) have increased 10.7 per cent to Rs 5.28 lakh crore during April-October, 2017. Refunds amounting to Rs 89,507 crore were issued during the seven month period.

“The provisional figures of Direct Tax collections up to October, 2017 show that net collections are at Rs 4.39 lakh crore which is 15.2 per cent higher than the net collections for the corresponding period of last year,” the finance ministry said.

Arun Jaitley on Tuesday expressed confidence that demonetisation taken a year ago will lead to greater tax compliance in the country.  

“The exercise to remove the anonymity with currency has further yielded results in the form of 56 lakh new individual tax payers filing their returns till August 5, 2017 which was the last date for filing return for this category; last year this number was about 22 lakh,” he said. 

He said that self-assessment tax (voluntary payment by tax payers at the time of filing return) paid by non-corporate tax payers increased by 34.25 per cent during April 1 to August 5 in 2017 when compared to the same period in 2016. 

“With increase in tax base and bringing back undisclosed income into the formal economy, the amount of advance tax paid by non-corporate tax payers during the current year has also increased by about 42 per cent during April 1 to August 5,” Mr Jaitley said. 

He also pointed out that leads gathered due to data collected during the demonetisation period have led to identification of 2.97 lakh suspect shell companies.