The collection of corporate tax, a good indicator of the health of India Inc and the economy, rose 30% in the April-July period this year to R85,222 crore.
Impressive growth has also been maintained on the income tax front with the gross collection registering a 21.6% rise to R47,214 crore in the first four months of the current financial year, according to provisional figures.
Overall, the gross direct tax mop-up rose 26.6% to R1.32 lakh crore during the first four months of the current financial year. However, the huge refunds disbursed by the revenue department have pulled the growth of overall net collection. It stood at R78,679 crore during April-July, which is lower by 8.1% over the year-ago period. The income tax department has disbursed refunds of R53,863 crore during the period.
PwC tax partner Rahul Garg said that the growth in corporate tax collection shows that India Inc are optimistic on the year-end profitability, which is a good sign. If the gross mop-up is including TDS, there may be chances of accumulating of refunds as it happened in the past. The real test would be the second installment of advance tax numbers, due by September 15.
During the first four months of the current financial year, the net corporate tax collection was at R42,497 crore, which is 17.6% down than the last year. However, net income tax mop-up grew 6.3% to R36,078 crore during April-July period.
The growth of revenue collection has been impressive this year, despite fall in industrial output growth and expected slowdown in GDP growth this financial year. The net indirect tax collection too rose by 27% to R1.08 lakh crore during April-July this year as compared to the corresponding period last year.
The excise mop-up in the first four months of the current fiscal was up 22% at R36,475 crore, while the customs collection rose by 30% to R50,705 crore and the service tax mop-up during April-July this year stood at R21,598 crore, a rise of 30% over the year-ago period.
The industrial activities have not been buoyant this year, which may be attributed to RBI raising key policy rates 11 times since March 2010 to tame the rising inflation. The IIP has declined to 5.7% during April-May 2011-12 as compared to 10.8% during the corresponding period of 2010-11. Besides, the Prime Minister?s Economic Advisory Council has revised down India?s growth forecast to 8.2% for the current fiscal, from 9% as projected earlier.