April-June direct tax revenue up 41 per cent: Pankaj Chaudhary

NEW DELHI: Net direct tax collection in the first quarter of the financial year surged by 41.32% to Rs 3.54 lakh crore . The net tax revenue stood at Rs 2.50 lakh crore during the same quarter in last financial year, Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State for Finance told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Indirect tax revenue of the government also increased in the said quarter. Net indirect tax collection including Goods and Services Tax (GST), custom duty, union excise duty and services surged by 9.4% in the first quarter of FY23 to Rs 3.44 lakh crore as compared to Rs 3.14 lakh crore in the April-June quarter of the previous financial year, he stated.

Chaudhary attributed the increase in revenue to increase in compliance measures and rapid economic recovery after the country got hit by Covid pandemic. He also added that no exemption on food items was granted during the current fiscal.

Several measures taken by the central government  helped in increasing the tax collections. The minister said that currently e-invoicing is applicable on all registered persons having an aggregate turnover of more than Rs 20 crore with effect from April 01, 2022, in any of the preceding financial year starting from 2017-18. Also, insertion of new clause (aa) in the Section 16(2) and substitution of Rule 36(4), allowing the taxpayer to avail of the input tax credit (ITC) reflected in GSTR-2B also helped. 

Further, the government added restaurant services into the Sec 9(5) and shifted the liability on ecommerce operators like Swiggy, Zomato etc from January 1, 2022, he stated. Also, automatic calculation of interest in the GSTR 3B for the delay in payment of GST liability added to the increase in revenue.

Meanwhile, the income tax department on Monday said that more than 3 crore income tax returns ( ITRs) for Assessment year 2022-23 were filed on e-Filing portal till 25th July, 2022. The due date to file ITR for AY 2022-23 is 31st July, 2022.