Net direct tax collection (post-refunds) moderately exceeded the revised estimates (RE) for the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) on the back of personal income tax revenues, but corporation tax receipts fell short of the RE.
Direct tax collection, net of refunds, stood at Rs 19.58 trillion in FY24, surpassing the RE of Rs 19.45 trillion by Rs 13,000 crore, or 0.7 per cent.
The government had revised up FY24 projections for personal income tax by 13.5 per cent over the Budget estimates (BE) of Rs 9 trillion, at Rs 10.22 trillion. The actual collection (including securities transaction tax), however, exceeded the RE by 2.1 per cent at Rs 10.44 trillion.
On the other hand, the RE for corporation tax was kept at the same level as the BE, at Rs 9.23 trillion for the year. Even then, the mop-up fell short of the estimates by Rs 12,000 crore, or 1.3 per cent, at Rs 9.11 trillion.
As such, while actual growth in personal income tax collection was higher at 25.3 per cent in FY24, as against 22.7 per cent pegged in the RE over the FY23 mop-up, that of corporation tax was lower at 10.3 per cent, as against 11.7 per cent in the RE.
Refunds of Rs 3.79 trillion were issued during 2023-24, showing an increase of 22.7 per cent over Rs 3.09 trillion issued the previous year.
Gross personal income tax collection rose 24.3 per cent to Rs 12.01 trillion during FY24 over Rs 9.67 trillion a year ago. Gross corporation tax mop-up was up 13.06 per cent to Rs 11.32 trillion during 2023-24 over Rs 10 trillion during FY23.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) did not respond to a query as to why corporation tax collection was slightly lower than the RE.
CBDT Chairman Nitin Gupta had told Business Standard in October that the rate of growth in corporate collection would not pick up, attributing the slowdown to the concessional corporate tax regime (introduced in FY20). He said it would continue to grow at a “moderate” rate.
Since the indirect tax collections also exceeded the RE for FY24, the total tax revenues would be higher than pegged in the RE.
A top government official had earlier said even the indirect tax collection for FY24 has exceeded the revised estimates (RE) of Rs 14.84 trillion by “a handsome margin”, helped by a record GST mop-up.
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) chairman Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, in a letter to field officials, recently said, “I am happy to inform that the indirect tax collections for the Financial Year 2023-24, including Customs and Union Excise Duty have exceeded the Revised Estimates by a handsome margin.”
First Published: Apr 21 2024 | 6:45 PM IST
