NEW DELHI: Two days after the government said income tax returns grew 25 per cent ostensibly due to demonetisation, direct tax collection figures of the first four months of FY18 released on Wednesday showed a 19.1 per cent uptick to Rs 1.9 lakh crore. This constitutes 19.5 per cent of the Rs 9.8 lakh crore target from this segment for the full year.
Direct tax consists of personal income tax and corporate tax.
In April-July of last fiscal, 2016-17, direct tax collection had grown 24 per cent to Rs 1.59 lakh crore.
In gross terms, the growth rate for corporate income tax is 7.2 per cent, while that for personal income tax (including securities transaction tax) is 17.5 per cent for the April-July period of FY18.
After adjusting for refunds, the net growth in corporate tax collections is 23.2 per cent while that in personal income tax collections is 15.7 per cent.
Refunds amounting to Rs 61,920 crore have been issued during April-July 2017, which are 5.1 per cent lower than the refunds issued during the corresponding period of 2016-17.
On Monday, the government had said that the number of tax returns filed soared to 2.83 crore against 2.27 crore in the previous year. Individual tax returns filed were up 25.3 per cent at 2.79 crore.
“This clearly shows that a substantial number of new tax payers have been brought into the tax net subsequent to demonetisation,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes had said.