Boom time for companies: What record profits may mean for govt's revenue

If much higher profits this year do not propel corporation tax revenue to a level higher than the FY19 peak, something must be wrong with corporation tax, writes T N Ninan

India’s corporate sector is enjoying a dramatic turnaround. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) studies of corporate finances show that, for a shifting sample of 2,600+ listed private companies, excluding financial enterprises, net profits in the first half of this financial year are already about 80 per cent of the profits earned during all of last year. Even if the profit growth rate falters in the second half of the year, the RBI sample’s profits for all of 2021-22 could end up showing growth in the region of 60 per cent. This comes on top of a more than doubling