Net direct tax collections during the first quarter of the current fiscal (2009-10) grew 3.65 per cent on account of higher tax refunds. For the April-June period, direct tax collection (corporate tax and personal income tax) of the government stood at Rs 59,465 crore, up from Rs 57,373 crore in the same period of the 2008-09 financial year, according to a finance ministry statement.
“Lower growth in net tax collection was mainly on account of higher tax refund outgo of 52.01 per cent at Rs 17,600 crore in the present quarter, against Rs 11,578 crore in the first quarter last fiscal,” said the release.
The net tax collection in the first quarter of the previous fiscal grew by over 40 per cent.
The high refunds are due to the revenue department’s initiatives of faster processing of returns on the new national computer network. The system, which is available from the current fiscal, has the ability to process up to 200,000 returns every day. At present, there are close to 33 million taxpayers in the country.
While corporate tax collection grew by 3.31 per cent at Rs 35,709 crore during the April-June period against Rs 34,566 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, personal income-tax collection was 4.38 per cent more at Rs 23,780 crore, against the first quarter of the previous financial year.
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Personal income-tax comprises the fringe benefit tax (FBT) and the securities transaction tax (STT). FBT recorded a decline of 7.56 per cent at Rs 1,031 crore, as against Rs 1,115 crore in the same period last year. STT also fell by 9.9 per cent at Rs 1,462 crore, against Rs 1,623 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal. On a monthly basis, growth in net collections as well as tax deducted at source (TDS) was higher with total receipts for June 2009 at Rs 35,307 crore compared to the net collection of Rs 34,533 crore during the year-ago month. Growth in corporate TDS was 12 per cent, at Rs 19,584 crore against Rs 17,477 crore last year.