Direct tax receipts up 33%, at Rs 1.47 lakh crore

Deceleration in economic growth has not impacted revenue collections as the realisation from direct taxes have gone up by 32.54 per cent during the first half of the current fiscal. Within the direct taxes, collections from the corporate tax went up by 35.65 per cent taking the total direct tax realisation to Rs 1,47,197 crore, compared with Rs 1,11,055 crore in the year-ago period. The corporate taxes collection rose to Rs 95,283 crore as against Rs 70,240 crore, while Personal Income Tax (including FBT, STT and BCTT) grew by 26.94 per cent to Rs 51,701 crore, an official release said. With stock markets on southward direction, securities transaction tax registered a growth of just 2.72 per cent growth at Rs 3,182 crore during the period. Among the direct tax the Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) shot up by 62.23 per cent to Rs 3,580 crore. At the same time, growth in corporate tax deducted at source (TDS) remained above 52 per cent and personal income tax TDS grew at 28 per cent despite substantial tax relief allowed to individual taxpayers in the budget 2008, it said. Corporate TDS collections stood at Rs 30,810 crore as on September 30, 2008, against Rs 20,210 crore during the corresponding period last year. Income TDS stood at Rs 33,276 crore as against Rs 26,002 crore in the same period. Continued high growth in TDS and FBT collections indicates inherent strength of the Indian economy and continued improvement in tax administration, it said. The latest growth estimates of Indian economy reveal that the GDP is the first quarter of 2008-09 slipped to 7.9 per cent from a high of 9.2 per cent in the corresponding period last year. Banking Cash Transaction Tax (BCTT) posted a negative growth of 17.65 per cent at Rs 320 crore, against Rs 272 crore. Self-assessment tax paid by both corporate and non-corporate taxpayers, voluntarily before filing their tax returns, registered substantial growth at 111 per cent and 71 per cent respectively. Higher growth in self-assessment tax indicates continued improvement in tax compliance levels, the official statement said. As per the Budget estimate, the government fixed the corporate tax collection target of Rs 2,26,361 crore while the income tax realisation was pegged at Rs 1,38,314 crore for the entire fiscal. 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. – www.financialexpress.com