A contraction in refund outgo, rich dividends from ‘Operation Clean Money’ and more assessees coming under the income tax net post demonetisation helped net direct tax collections surge 19.1 per cent to ₹1.90 lakh crore during April-July.

This accounts for 19.5 per cent of the total budget estimate of direct taxes for the year 2017-18, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said on Wednesday.

The refund outgo during April-July stood at ₹61,920 crore, 5.1 per cent lower than the refunds issued during the corresponding period of 2016-17.

Direct tax collections have been bolstered by 17.5 per cent increase in gross personal income tax (including STT) collections. After adjusting for refunds, PIT collections grew 15.7 per cent, the CBDT said in a statement.

While gross corporate income tax collections grew 7.2 per cent, the net growth (after refunds) stood at 23.2 per cent.

The number of income taxpayers has increased after demonetisation. During the period November 9, 2016 to March 31, 2017, as many as 1.96 crore returns were filed as compared to 1.63 crore returns filed during corresponding period of 2015-16 and 1.23 crore returns filed during the corresponding period of 2014-15, official sources said.

Operation clean money Another factor that helped bolster direct tax revenues is the ‘operation clean money’ launched on January 31.

The broad outcome of this operation is that about 18 lakh persons whose cash transactions did not appear in line with their tax profile were identified and approached through email/SMS, official sources said.

More than 9.27 lakh responses were received giving information on 13.33 lakh accounts involving cash deposits of ₹2.89 lakh crore, they added. A record number of 5.27 lakh responses were received in the first 12 days of the operation, it is learnt.

srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in

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