Direct tax receipts continue to grow at brisk pace: CBDT

Centre’s direct tax revenue receipts continue to grow at a robust pace, with gross collections showing a jump of 30% year-on-year to Rs 8.36 trillion in FY23 so far, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said on Sunday. It stood at Rs 6.42 trillion during the same time last year.

The revenue collection growth is a clear indicator of the revival of economic activity post the pandemic, CBDT said in a statement, adding that it is also the result of stable policies of the government, focusing on simplification and streamlining of processes and plugging of tax leakage through effective use of technology.

After adjusting for tax refunds, the net tax collections for FY23 as on 17 September stood at Rs7 trillion, compared to Rs5.68 trillion during the same period of FY22. This represents an increase of 23%.

The net direct tax collection so far this year includes corporate tax collection of Rs3.68 trillion and personal income tax collection of Rs 3.3 trillion, which also includes securities transact tax collection.

The tax authority collected Rs4.36 trillion in gross corporate tax and Rs3.98 trillion in gross personal income tax, including STT, so far this year. A look at the mode of tax collections showed that the tax authority is collecting more in terms of taxes deducted at source (TDS). The tax department collected Rs4.34 trillion in TDS, Rs2.95 as advance tax, Rs77,164 crore in self-assessment tax, Rs20,080 crore in regular assessment and Rs8,933 crore in other ways.

The cumulative advance tax collections for the first and second quarter of FY23 stand at Rs. 2.95 trillion as on 17 September, against advance tax collections of Rs. 2.52 trillion for the corresponding period of FY22, showing a growth of 17%, CBDT said.

Advance Tax collection comprises corporation tax of Rs. 2.29 trillion and personal income tax of Rs. 66,176 crore, CBDT said. Advance tax is to be paid in four instalments in a year.

“There has been a remarkable increase in the speed of processing of income tax returns filed during the current fiscal, with almost 93% of the duly verified income tax returns having been processed till 17 September. This has resulted in faster issue of refunds with almost a 468% increase in the number of refunds issued in the current financial year,” CBDT said.

Refund amounting to Rs. 1.35 trillion has been issued in FY23 so far against refunds of Rs. 74,140 crore issued during the corresponding period in FY22, showing a growth of over 83%, CBDT said.