Direct tax kitty exceeds revised estimates by 9%

India’s net direct tax collections for the year are 48.4% higher than 2020-21 and 42.5% more than the pre-pandemic levels, as on March 16, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday.

In absolute terms, net direct tax collections stood at more than ₹13.63 lakh crore, compared with ₹9.18 lakh crore in same period of the COVID-affected financial year 2020-21 and ₹9.56 lakh crore recorded in 2019-20.

The net direct tax collections are significantly higher than the Union Budget target for 2021-22 of ₹11.08 lakh crore, which were revised later to ₹12.5 lakh crore. This constitutes a 23% rise over the original Budget estimates.

While taxes remitted by corporates accounted for 52.75%, or ₹7.19 lakh crore, of the net direct tax kitty, Personal Income Tax and Security Transaction Tax collections accounted for the rest after refunds were netted out.   

Gross tax collections have risen by 38.34% from 2020-21 and 36.72% from 2019-20 levels, as per the Ministry’s data, touching ₹15,50,364.2 crore by Wednesday. Gross Advance Tax collections surged 50.6% over pre-COVID levels of 2019-20, while tax refunds amounting to ₹1,87,325.9 crore have already been remitted so far in 2021-22.  

“The Advance Tax figure of ₹6,62,896.3 crore as on March 16, comprises Corporation Tax at ₹4,84,451.8 crore and Personal Income Tax at ₹ 1,78,441.1 crore. This amount is expected to increase as further information is awaited from banks,” the Ministry noted.