The direct tax collections in the current financial year is likely to exceed the Budget estimate (BE) of Rs 18.23 trillion owing to buoyancy in tax collections, Central Board of Direct Taxes Nitin Gupta told reporters on Wednesday.
“Direct tax collections are currently growing at 21-22% on a net basis (after refunds), and gross (pre-refunds) collections are growing at 18%…the economy is doing extremely well,” Gupta said. “We are confident it (net direct tax collections) will exceed BE,” he said.
The government’s direct tax collections, net of refunds, came in at Rs 10.60 trillion up to November 9 in the current fiscal year, a release issued by the finance ministry said on Friday. The collections during the period were 21.8% higher year-on-year and constitute 58.2% of the Budget estimates for Direct taxes in FY24. A growth rate of 21.8% is sharply higher than 11.6% growth rate pegged in the Budget.
The Income Tax (IT) Department has issued refunds amounting to Rs. 1.77 trillion from April 1 – November 9 in FY24, which is lower than Rs 1.83 trillion issued in the comparable period of FY23.
Earlier this month, a government official told FE that total refunds might be around Rs 3.50 trillion this year as compared to a little over Rs 3 trillion last year.
Before refunds, the direct tax collections stood at Rs. 12.37 trillion, 17.59% higher than the collections for the corresponding period of last year.
Further, CBDT Chairman Gupta said that the IT Department has confiscated more unaccounted cash in the poll-bound states this year as compared to earlier.
“We have seized more cash this time (in election-bound states) as against previous assembly polls or even Lok Sabha polls. Whenever we get the data or intelligence, we identify it and seize it. All the enforcement agencies are working on it and their coordination is noteworthy,” he said. In November, elections are scheduled to be held in five states – Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana.