Budget 2019: Income tax collection target 'too steep', say experts

The government is expecting to earn Rs 12,000 crore on account of this hike in surcharge

The income tax collection target was still far from realistic despite the number being revised downwards in the full Budget from the interim Budget projection, experts said.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has been given a collection target of Rs 5.69 trillion in personal income tax in the fiscal year 2019-20 — 19.2 per cent more than the Rs 4.77-crore collection in the previous year. In 2016-17, the year of demonetisation and income declaration scheme, the mop-up had grown by 26 per cent. The collections had shot up in that year because people regularised their unaccounted income by paying