The government is confident of not only meeting the direct tax collection target for FY24, but also exceeding it, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Ravi Agarwal said on Monday.
“The trend of tax collection is positive on both corporate and non-corporate (PIT) fronts. The refunds are being issued promptly, and despite that collections are buoyant,” Agarwal told reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of Taxpayers’ Lounge at India International Trade Fair 2024.
The Centre’s direct tax collections after refunds grew 15.4% percent on year to Rs 12.1 lakh crore during the period April 1-November 10, which is higher than the 12.8% growth pegged in the Budget.
The target for direct tax collections (before transfers to the states) is set at Rs 22.07 lakh crore.
Of the total, net corporate tax collections rose 6.5% on year to Rs 5.1 trillion, while non-corporate tax (PIT) mop-up soared 20.8% on year to Rs 6.62 trillion. The Budget has pegged the former’s growth at 12%, and the latter at 13.6%.
Meanwhile, on the recently launched e-campaign of nudging taxpayers to disclose details of foreign assets and income correctly in their income tax returns for AY 2024-25 by December 31, Agarwal said the basic intent of the campaign to alert the taxpayers to declare those details, as many of them may not have had information about this.
“Under automatic exchange of information, we get information about foreign assets…many people have not declared it,” said the Chairman. “In the case of high value assets, we are emailing and sending SMSmessages,” he said, while adding that a “substantial number” of people have already been sent the SMS who have undeclared foreign assets above a certain threshold.
Additionally, on the ongoing review of the Income Tax Act,1961, Agarwal said that more than 6,000 suggestions have been received from the public on it. “The focus will be to simplify the Income Tax Act language,” he said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the full Budget for FY25, on July 23, had said that the government would set up an internal committee to undertake a “comprehensive review” of the I-T Act. “The purpose is to make the Act concise, lucid, and easy to read and understand,” she had said.
The CBDT has established as many as 22 specialised “sub-committees” to review the various provisions of the Act. These committees have held several meetings with domain experts in recent weeks to “collaboratively explore and recommend improvements” to the Act, an official tweet by the finance ministry had said last week.
In August, a five-member committee was established to review the I-T Act, and it’s expected to submit its report by the end of January-February, official sources had said earlier.