The collection of Securities Transaction Tax (STT), a tax levied on transactions done on the stock exchanges, has witnessed a 25 per cent jump this year, Chief Income-Tax Commissioner RK Singh said here today.
"This year we have seen a substantial rise in the collection of STT at 25 per cent. Till today, the total collection of STT is Rs 5,994 crore compared to Rs 4,812 crore last year in the same period," Singh told media here on the sidelines of a seminar conducted by Indian Merchants Chamber.
He also informed that this year's direct tax collection target for Mumbai, which contributes over 38 per cent of the total tax collection, has been revised to Rs 1.42 lakh crore against Rs 1.34 lakh crore earlier.
"The current tax collection growth rate is 7.6 per cent over the last year. We need 14 per cent growth to meet the original target and 20 per cent to meet the revised target. But the good news is our economic growth rate has increased," Singh said.
During the last 10 years, the number of individual tax assessees has increased manifold from 1.72 crore to 3.26 crore, he said, adding but the number of corporate tax assessees has shown only a modest increase, from 2.95 lakh to 3.27 lakh during the same period. The total tax collected has seen an eightfold increase in the last one decade, he said.
The cost of tax collection has also come down to 0.66 per cent against 1.83 per cent 10 years ago, due to the advancement in technology. The contribution of direct tax to the GDP has increased from 2.68 per cent to 6.56 per cent over the same period, he said.