Net direct tax collection surges 20%, reaches over 80% of revised
estimates on better compliance, PIT
Improved
compliance and high growth in Personal Income Tax (PIT) propelled net direct
tax collection to grow over 20 per cent during April 1 and February 20 of
2023-24, Income Tax Department reported on Sunday. Apart from PIT, direct taxes
include Corporate Income Tax. PIT also comprises of Securities Transaction Tax
(STT).
On
February 1, the Union Budget had raised the estimate for direct tax collection
to Rs.19.45 lakh crore from Rs.18.23 lakh crore.
According
to the Department, Direct Tax collection stood at Rs. 15.60 lakh crore, which
is 20.25 per cent higher than the net collections of Rs.12.97 lakh crore in the
corresponding period last year. This collection is over 80 per cent of the
total Revised Estimates of Direct Taxes for FY 2023-24. The Department expects
that, during the remaining 40 days of the current fiscal, covering the
remaining proportion of the estimate will not be difficult.
PIT
has seen better growth than CIT. Data showed that while the net growth of CIT
collection was over 13.5 per cent, PIT collection (net) surged by over 27 per
cent. The net number is calculated after deducting refunds from gross
collections. Refunds amounting to Rs.2.77 lakh crore have been issued during
April 1 and February 10, the Department said.
Although
the IT Department has not specified any reasons for the increase in the
collection, the Budget document has listed several reform measures resulting in
a much better collection. One such measure has been the expansion of the scope
of TDS (Tax Deducted at Source/TCS (Tax Collected at Source) to include new
transactions like foreign remittance, purchase of luxury cars, e-commerce
participants, etc.
Similarly,
a new provision has been introduced in the Income Tax Act requiring the
successor entity to file a modified return within six months of the order of
reorganization being passed by the competent authority. Another measure is an
e-verification scheme which enables the authorities to collect information for
accurate and comprehensive determination of income to reduce tax evasion.
The
document mentioned that PAN is now being leveraged to become a Business
Identification Number (BIN) for providing registration to several government
departments and services. During the year, 47.09 lakh new e-PANs have been
allotted. Also, the integration of PAN with AADHAR has been carried out to
facilitate de-duplication. As on 31st December, 2023, a total of 58.76 crore
PANs are linked with Aadhaar. An Integrated e-Filing and Centralised Processing
Center 2.0 (CPC 2.0) project was launched to provide better e-filing
experience, ease of compliance, and more accurate and faster processing of
ITRs.
As
on December 31, 2023, a total of 8.18 crore ITRs (Income Tax Returns) have been
filed for AY 2023-24 which is nine per cent higher than the ITRs filed during
the corresponding period for AY 2022-23. Out of these, eight crore ITRs have
been verified. All these helped to improve the compliance and in turn better
collection, the IT Department said.
www.thehindubusinessline.com
dt. 12-02-2024