 "IDS fetches Rs 3,500 crore of taxes till Monday")
The first instalment of tax payment from those who have availed of the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) 2016 stood at Rs 3,500 crore as on Monday November 28. This, according to officials, could swell to Rs 7,500 crore by Wednesday November 30, the last date.
The exchequer is expected to get Rs 30,000 crore from declarations worth Rs 65,250 crore under IDS in three instalments. Of this, Rs 15,000 crore would come in the current financial year through two instalments of Rs 7,500 crore each.
“People will pay up as IDS is much more lucrative than the new disclosure scheme announced, which has a 50 per cent tax and no immunity from Benami Transactions Act,” said a government official.
Those who do not make the first instalment will end up facing action as the department has information on them, the official added.
As many as 64,275 individuals availed of the four-month amnesty window that closed on September 30, 2016 under which they would escape prosecution under the Income Tax Act, Wealth Act and Benami Act by paying 45 per cent tax in three instalments running up to September 30, 2017.
The government’s tax kitty will swell from tax payment under IDS and Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna (PMGK).
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The latter calls for 50 per cent penalty for those depositing old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes and declaring their black money. As much as 25 per cent of the total sum would also be locked-in for four years in PMGK and the tax assessee will not get any interest on it. The tax kitty will also get a boost from the Seventh Pay Commission award.
However, tax officials are of the opinion that direct tax collections would meet the Budget target of Rs 8.47 lakh crore in 2016-17. This would be 12.6 per cent higher than Rs 7.52 lakh crore collected in 2015-16. This is so because the expected slowdown in the economic growth in the third quarter and part of the fourth quarter might hit tax collections.
The government received Rs 3.77 lakh crore in direct tax collections till October this year, up 10.6 per cent from the year-ago period.