Tax mop-up at 9.1% of GDP

Corporate tax collection shot up 101.42% of the revised estimate in 2003-04

The total tax collected as a percentage of the gross domestic product has shot up to 9.1 per cent in 2003-04, compared with 8.65 per cent in the previous year, on the back of a buoyant corporate tax collection.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Revenue Secretary Vineeta Rai said the total direct tax collection as on April 17 had for the first time crossed the Rs 1,00,000-crore mark. At Rs 1,04,678 crore, the direct tax mop-up was 27 per cent higher than the collections in 2002-03, she said.

The figures did not include the tax deducted at source from the Centre and states, which was expected to add at least another Rs 1,000 crore, she added.

The indirect tax collection, however, fell Rs 2,016 crore short of the target to touch Rs 1,47,484 crore, compared with the revised estimate of Rs 1,49,500 crore for 2003-04.

Rai attributed the drop partially to the cut in excise and customs rates announced in January, which had an impact of Rs 3,000 crore in the last quarter of the year.

Finance Secretary DC Gupta said the government was well on course to improve the fiscal deficit target of 4.8 per cent of the GDP as projected in the revised estimate.

"The expenditure, on both Plan and non-Plan account, will be within the revised estimate," he said, indicating marginal savings in the total expenditure budget of the Centre.

Chief Economic Adviser Ashok Lahiri said the Centre's fiscal deficit would be lower than the Budget estimate after over a decade. "In 1991-92, the actual fiscal deficit was Rs 36,325 crore (5.56 per cent of GDP), against the Budget estimate of Rs 37,727 crore (5.77 per cent of GDP)," he said.

The corporate tax collection in 2003-04 stood at Rs 63,882 crore, which was 101.42 per cent of the revised estimate and 36 per cent more than that collected in the previous year.

The income-tax collection, on the other hand, was Rs 40,703 crore, 101.07 per cent of the revised estimate, and 13.65 per cent more than the mop-up in the previous year.

The excise collection, at Rs 1,47,484 crore, was short of the revised estimate by Rs 2,016 crore. Rai, however, expected another Rs 500 crore to accrue shortly, leaving the shortfall at about Rs 1,500 crore.

"Overall, we will meet the collection target with higher direct taxes more than compensation for the shortfall in indirect taxes," she said.

Rai further said the number of searches conducted during the last fiscal were 50 per cent less than the previous year.

"Tax practices were re-oriented to encourage voluntary compliance with minimal intrusive actions like search and surveys," she said.

During the last fiscal, the assessee base showed a marginal increase of about 900,000 to 34 million from 33.16 million in the previous year. The higher direct tax collection was despite a significant increase in refund orders to 5,143,000 against 4,376,000 in 2002-03.