Direct Tax Collections Which Were Revised Upwards - Nov 08, 2008

Centre''s direct tax collections, which were revised upwards mid-way for this fiscal, rose by just 10.66% at Rs 19,708 crore in the month of October, mainly on account of last date for filing of corporate tax returns this year. The collections stood at Rs 17,809 crore in the corresponding fiscal last year. However, according to tax official sources the collection for October 2008 are not comparable with the previous year, since corporates paid shortfall in their tax liability in the month of September after the last date of filing. returns was advanced to September 30 this year from October 31.

Furthermore, according to sources, at the time of filing of returns corporates usually pay shortfall between their actual liability and taxes paid earlier. During the period of April-October, the direct tax collections surged by nearly 29.52% at Rs 1,66,905 crore. It was at Rs 1,28,864 crore in the same period a year ago, according to a Finance Ministry release. Corporate tax collections were grew by 33.49% at Rs 1,05,174 crore, while personal income tax rose by nearly 23.14% at Rs 61,433 crore during the period. Earlier this year, direct tax revenues targets were revised to Rs 3,95,000 crore from Rs 3,65,000 crore for this fiscal. The revised figures were over 25% higher than the direct tax collections of about Rs 3,14,000 crore last fiscal.

Direct Tax Collections Up 38% In April-Aug - 4 Sep 08

Belying fears of an economic slowdown, direct tax collections have gone up by 38.3 per cent in the first five months of the current fiscal at Rs 84,409 crore, compared to Rs 61,030 crore in a year-ago period. The corporate taxes rose by 43.49 per cent to Rs 48,450 crore, against Rs 33,766 crore, while Personal Income Tax (including FBT, STT and BCTT) grew by 31.79 per cent to Rs 35,840 crore, an official release said. Amids volatility in stock markets, securities transaction tax registered a 15.10 per cent growth at Rs 2,730 crore during the period.

Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) rose by 31.85 per cent to Rs 1,339 crore. However, Banking Cash Transaction Tax (BCTT) posted a negative growth of 21.36 per cent at Rs 274 crore against Rs 348 crore. BCTT was never taken as a revenue generating measure, but was imposed to keep a track of black money generation. Analysts said robust tax collections are expected to help the government maintain fiscal deficit at 2.5 per cent during 2008-09 despite increase in expenditure in the election year.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has reiterated on several occasions that the Budget deficit targets would be adhered to. Among regions, tax growth in Delhi and Mumbai was 76.23 per cent and 32.49 per cent, respectively. Other regions with high tax growth are Nagpur (88.75 per cent); Kochi (58.07 per cent); Kolkata (56.82 per cent); Bhubaneshwar (53.59 per cent) and Bangaluru (48.87 per cent).