Direct tax mop-up rises 15.8% in H1

Aided by better compliance from certain non-corporate assessees, the Centre’s net direct tax collections grew 15.8 per cent in April-September 2017 to ₹3.86 lakh crore. This represents 39.4 per cent of the total Budget estimate of direct taxes for 2017-18 (₹9.8 lakh crore).

Last fiscal year, till September 2016, about 38.65 per cent of the Budget estimates of direct taxes for 2016-17 had been achieved.

Wider base cited

The increase in collections could be attributed to an increase in the personal income-tax payer base post demonetisation and the effect of GST implementation, tax experts said, adding that this can be gauged by the fact that in the first half last fiscal year the collections were up only 8.95 per cent.

In the April-September 2017 period, the gross collections (before adjusting for refunds) have increased by 10.3 per cent to ₹4.66 lakh crore. Refunds amounting to ₹79,660 crore were issued in the April-September 2017 period, according to an official release.

In terms of advance tax, ₹1.77 lakh crore had been received up to September 30, a growth of 11.5 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

Tax experts feel that the Centre is well on course to meet its ambitious Budget estimate for direct tax collections this year.

Abhishek Goenka, Partner and Leader, Corporate and International Tax, PwC India, said that growth in corporate tax indicates some resilience and momentum, and is perhaps an outcome of the phasing out of many incentives. However, this growth could be pared downwards by the end of the year.

Sudhir Kapadia, National Tax Leader, EY, said that corporate tax has increased on expected lines, but the real impact has come from personal income-tax. “For calculating personal income-tax, the government includes contributions of sole proprietary business owners. It is not only salaried; any non-corporate will come under personal income-tax. It is fair inference to say that personal income-tax collections have improved due to better compliance of non-corporate assessees, partly because of demonetisation and partly due to GST inducing better compliance in direct tax,” he said.

Girish Vanvari, Head of Tax, KPMG in India, said that this was on expected lines. “With demonetisation, more and more activities in the economy are turning to be official, especially real-estate deals and transactions of people not in the tax net.

“Otherwise, the economy is not doing well. It is just that better reporting is happening right now. This will only go up in the next one year,” Vanvari said.