The tax department announced on Sunday, April 21, that India’s net direct tax collections increased dramatically by 17.7% year over year to Rs 19.58 crore in the fiscal year that ended in March 2024, much above even revised projections. In FY24, net collections of income and corporation taxes, which account for the majority of direct taxes, surpassed the revised estimates by Rs 13,000 crore and budget estimates by Rs 1.35 lakh crore, or 7.40%.In the interim Budget released on February 1, the government increased the target for direct tax collection in FY24 (April 2023 to March 2024) to Rs 19.45 lakh crore. With this, the gross tax collection target as per the revised estimate stood at Rs 34.37 lakh crore for FY24. While gross direct tax collections (provisional) for the FY24 rose 18.48% to Rs 23.37 lakh crore, net proceeds (after accounting for refunds) surged 17.7% to Rs 19.58 lakh crore, reflecting buoyancy in the economy and rise in income levels of individuals and corporates. The gross collection (provisional) of Direct Taxes (before adjusting for refunds) for the FY24 stood at Rs 23.37 lakh crore, showing a growth of 18.48% over the gross collection of Rs 19.72 lakh crore in FY23. Meanwhile, the gross corporate tax collection (provisional) in FY24 was up 13.06% to Rs 11.32 lakh crore as compared to the gross corporate tax collection of Rs 10 lakh crore of the preceding year.
CBDT statement
Refunds aggregating to Rs 3.79 lakh crore have been issued in FY24, the CBDT said in a statement. “The provisional figures of Direct Tax collections for the financial year (FY24) show that net collections are at Rs 19.58 lakh crore, compared to Rs 16.64 lakh crore in the preceding financial year, that is FY 2022-23,” it said, adding the Budget for 2023-24 fiscal had pegged the collections for the year at Rs 18.23 lakh crore, which were revised to Rs 19.45 lakh crore later. The statement further added that the provisional Direct Tax collections (net of the refunds) have exceeded the Budget Estimate by 7.40% and Revised Estimates by 0.67%. Refunds of Rs 3.79 lakh crore have been issued in the FY 2023-24 showing an increase of 22.74 per cent over the refunds of Rs 3.09 lakh crore issued in FY 2022-23, the statement added. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, CBIC chairman, in a letter to field officials, recently said, “I am happy to inform you 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.” The Net Corporate Tax collection (provisional) in FY 2023-24 at Rs 9.11 lakh crore showed a growth of 10.26% over the net corporate tax collection of Rs 8.26 lakh crore of the preceding year. However, the Gross Personal Income Tax collection including Securities Transaction Tax (provisional) in FY 2023-24 at Rs 12.01 lakh crore was up 24.26% over previous year’s collection of Rs 9.67 lakh crore. The Net Personal Income Tax collection including STT (provisional) in FY 2023-24 at Rs 10.44 lakh crore showed a growth of 25.23% over preceding fiscal year’s figure of Rs 8.33 lakh crore. (with the inputs from PTI)