Direct tax collections up 21 per cent at Rs3,36,1277 crore

Though industrial output continued to be sluggish, buoyancy in corporate tax drove up the net direct tax collection for April-February 2011 at Rs3,36,177 crore. This is an increase of 21 per cent over the same period last fiscal.

The direct tax collection stands at 75 per cent of the revised estimates target of Rs4,46,000 crore announced in the budget. The government, this year, has also fixed a target for all backlog clearance of refunds by 31March, 2011.

This has led to an outgo of Rs59,602 crore, the highest in any fiscal year so far. Last year, the refunds stood at Rs42,000 crore.

The net direct tax collection in the first 11 months of 2009-10 was Rs2,78,411 crore and the latest tax figures reveal that the major contribution to growth came from the industry with corporate tax collection registering a 24 per cent increase over the same period last year. It touched Rs2,23,612 crore in 2010-11 as against Rs1,80,318 crore in the same period the previous year.

Growth in personal I-T has been relatively low at 15 per cent with collections of Rs1,12,114 crore. This is against Rs97,692 crore last year which included securities transaction tax (Rs6,078 crore) and Fringe Benefit Tax and Banking Cash Transaction Tax at Rs5,975 crore.

In the budget, the government increased exemption limit to individual taxpayers while levying MAT on units in SEZs.

After factoring in the gains on MAT, estimated at Rs15,000 crore, the losses on sops to the department were estimated at Rs11,500 crore.