Efforts to shore up tax revenue appear to be showing results, with the direct tax collection set to exceed the revised estimate.

Finance Ministry officials said the total direct taxes collection had touched ₹6.36 lakh crore in 2013-14. Direct taxes include personal income tax, corporate tax and wealth tax. Originally, the Budget estimate for direct tax collection was ₹6.67 lakh crore.

Revenue authorities made intense efforts to collect taxes, especially from non-filers of returns. The department’s business intelligence project identified 2.1 million potential non-filers, and sent 50,000 letters in the first phase. More such letters were sent in phase two.

Indirect taxes

However, there are doubts over achieving the revised estimates for indirect tax collection, which include customs/import duty, excise duty and service tax.

The Finance Ministry has scaled down the target to ₹5.20 lakh crore from the Budget estimate of ₹5.65 lakh crore.

Although officials refused to quantify the shortfall, collections are not likely to cross ₹5 lakh crore.

The slowdown in manufacturing and lower growth in services have affected collection of excise and service taxes, respectively, said officials.

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