Advance tax payments have bolstered net direct tax collections, which may now surpass the upwardly revised target of Rs 19.45 lakh crore by the end of this fiscal, people aware of the matter told ET.
Net direct tax collections from April 1, 2023, to March 15, 2024, stood at Rs 18.95 lakh crore, up 14.05% year on year, buoyed by advance tax collections of Rs 9.10 lakh crore, officials said.
So far,
“Advance tax collection increases are a direct affirmation that corporate profits and individual income is growing,” said Rohinton Sidhwa, partner at Deloitte India. With payments expected to flow in until the month end, direct tax collections could cross the revised estimate, said one of the officials cited above.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during her budget speech on February 1, had raised the direct tax collections projection for FY24 to Rs 19.45 lakh crore for the current fiscal from the budget estimate of Rs 18.20 lakh crore.
Gross direct tax collections before refunds stood at `22.25 lakh crore as of March 15, up 13.5% compared to the same period last year, a second official said.
The gross corporate tax collection for the period under review stood at Rs 10.97 lakh crore, rising 9.26% on year, while personal income tax, including security transaction tax (STT), stood at Rs 10.80 lakh crore, up 13.4%.
Among minor head-wise collections, tax deducted at source stood at Rs 10.31 lakh crore as of March 15, self-assessment tax at Rs 1.73 lakh crore, regular assessment tax at Rs 73,528 crore, and security transaction tax at Rs 33,134 crore, the first official cited above said.
The government issued record refunds of Rs 3.33 lakh crore till March 15, over 10% higher than of Rs 3.03 lakh crore issued in the corresponding period of FY23.
With the government expecting revised returns by March 31, the overall direct tax collections may go up further, experts said.
“It is likely that this year the revised estimates for collection of tax will be exceeded,” Sidhwa said.
