Government’s Direct Tax Collections Jump 24%, Indirect Tax up 30% in April-July

Direct tax collection registered a growth of 24 percent to Rs 1.59 lakh crore during the April-July period of the current financial year.

The collection up to July indicates that 18.82 percent of the Annual Budget target of direct taxes has been achieved in the first four months of the fiscal, the finance ministry said in a statement.

Refunds totalling Rs 64,181 crore have been issued by the IT department during April-July, an increase of 10.4 percent over the corresponding period last year, the statement added.

Personal income tax collection grew 31.4 percent while corporate taxes registered an increase of 11.7 percent.

After accounting for refunds, the net growth in personal income tax is 46.6 percent and for corporate tax it is 2.8 percent.

For personal income tax, refund during April-June 2015-16 were much higher than in the corresponding period of the current fiscal.

Indirect tax receipts rose by 30 percent to Rs 2.72 lakh crore in the same period, mainly due to impressive growth in central excise duty mop-up, the finance ministry said in a separate statement. The government achieved nearly 35 percent of the Budget estimates for financial year 2016-17.

Indirect tax revenue includes collections from excise, customs and service tax.

Central excise revenue collection in the first four months of the fiscal grew 50.8 percent to Rs 1.23 lakh crore as against Rs 81,748 crore collected in the same period last fiscal.

Service tax revenue during April-July grew 25.8 percent to Rs 76,679 crore as against Rs 60,974 crore collected last year, the statement said.

Customs revenue collection in the period stood at Rs 71,767 crore as against Rs 66,495 crore collected last year, showing a growth of 7.9 percent.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has pegged indirect tax mop-up target at Rs 7.78 lakh crore in 2016-17, up 9.7 percent from Rs 7.09 lakh crore collected in the previous fiscal.