Direct tax collection grows 17% to ₹5.84 tn

The central government has collected ₹5.84 trillion in net direct tax revenues as of 10 August, marking a significant 17% improvement over a year-ago, according to an official statement.

This accounts for about one third of the ₹18.2 trillion direct tax collection target of the government for FY24.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement quoting provisional figures that direct tax collections continued to register steady growth.

Until 10 August, gross direct tax receipts without adjusting for refunds stood at ₹6.53 trillion, which is 15.73% higher than the gross collection for the corresponding period of last year.

The Centre has set a target of ₹9.2 trillion for corporate tax collection and ₹9 trillion for personal income taxes for FY24.

In the just-concluded personal income tax return filing season for assessment year 2023-24, the government reported a rise in the number of tax return filers.

Divakar Vijayasarathy, the founder and chief executive officer of DVS Advisors, said the growth in tax collections is the result of sustained efforts by the government on enforcement and use of technology and analytics-based focussed assessments.

The widening of scope of tax deducted at source (TDS) and tax collected at source (TCS) also advances the point of tax collections, instead of waiting for advance tax and self-assessed tax payments, said Vijayasarathy.

Earlier this month, CBDT said the number of income tax returns for assessment year 2023-24 filed till 31 July was more than 67.7 million, showing a 16.1% improvement over the returns filed for assessment year 2022-23, up to 31 July 2022.