Direct tax rises 17% in FY18; `10L-cr collected

The Centre has collected `9.95 lakh crore in income tax revenue in FY18, a growth of 17 per cent against last fiscal year, exceeding Budget target.

Around 1 crore new assessees, have started filing income tax returns in 2017-18 due to various measures taken by the government to tackle black money including demonetisation. The Budget Estimate for the FY18 was `9.80 lakh crore.

However, the government has missed its ambitious target of `10.05 lakh crore as per the revised estimates set in the Budget for FY19. “The provisional figures of direct tax collections for FY18 show that net collections are at `9.95 lakh crore which is 17.1 per cent higher than the net collections for FY17. The net direct tax collections represent 101.5 per cent of the budget estimates (`9.8 lakh crore) and 99 per cent of the revised estimates (`10.05 lakh crore) of direct taxes for FY18,” said CBDT.

Asked if the revised estimates of `10.05 lakh crore from direct tax collection was too aggressive, finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia said, “We should always try to be more aggressive when it comes to targets”. “I hope this `9.95 lakh crore will reach up to more than `10 lakh crore. At least next 3-4 days, we will get adjustment of `5,000 crore. It will be a landmark if we achieve `10 lakh figure in current year,” said Mr Adhia, who is also the revenue secretary.

He said that the government will meet the 3.5 per cent fiscal deficit target for FY18 as broadly direct and indirect collections are in line with expectations and there have been some savings on expenditure. During FY18, 6.84 crore income tax returns (ITRs) were filed with the income tax department as compared to 5.43 crore ITRs filed during FY17, a growth of 26 per cent.

“There has been a sustained increase in the number of ITRs filed in the last four financial years,” said CBDT.

It said that as compared to 3.79 crore ITRs filed in 2013-14, the number of ITRs filed during 2017-18 (6.84 crore) has increased by 80.5 per cent.

“During FY18, the number of new ITR filers has also increased to 99.49 lakh as compared to 85.51 lakh new ITR filers added during FY17, which translates into a growth of 16.3 per cent,” said CBDT.