Corp tax collections up 166%

Corporate tax collections rose by a whopping 166% at Rs 9,079 crore till June 23 of this fiscal against Rs 3,413 crore during the corresponding period of 2004-05.

However, income tax collections declined by 29% to Rs 7,091 crore against Rs 9,987 crore during the period due to rise in income tax exemption limit to Rs 1 lakh, restructuring of tax slabs in this year's budget and rise in refunds, the finance ministry said today.

Corporate tax collections reflected advance taxes, but did not include fringe benefit tax, which will figure in collections in September, the officials said.

In fact, the Government gave more refunds in corporate tax compared to collection in the month of April as is the usual trend. As such, the collection was in the negative zone of Rs 2,637 crore in April compared to Rs (-) 3,765 crore in the same month of the previous fiscal.

Corporate tax grew more than 20 times at Rs 1,567 crore in May this fiscal compared to Rs 74 crore in the same month last year.

Income tax collections declined in the first two months of this fiscal as well. It went down by 20.85% at Rs 2,576 crore in April, 2005 against Rs 3,254 crore in the same month of last year.

In the month of May, income tax collections were down by 7.76% at Rs 2,234 crore this year against Rs 2,422 crore last year.