Net direct tax mop-up beats revised estimates

New Delhi: India’s net direct tax collections surged by a massive 17.7 per cent year-on-year to Rs19.58 crore in the fiscal year ended March 2024, surpassing even revised estimates by a wide margin, the tax department said. Net collections of income and corporate taxes, which make up for most of the direct taxes, in 2023-24 financial year exceeded the Budget estimates by Rs1.35 lakh crore (7.40%) and the revised estimates by Rs13,000 crore.

The government had raised the target for direct tax collection in FY24 (April 2023 to March 2024) to Rs19.45 lakh crore in the interim Budget presented on February 1. With this, the gross tax collection target as per the revised estimate stood at Rs34.37 lakh crore for FY24. While gross direct tax collections (provisional) for the FY 2023-24 rose 18.48 per cent to Rs23.37 lakh crore, net proceeds (after accounting for refunds) surged 17.7 per cent to Rs19.58 lakh crore, reflecting buoyancy in the economy and rise in income levels of individuals and corporates. Refunds aggregating to Rs3.79 lakh crore have been issued in FY 2023-24, the CBDT said in a statement.

“The provisional figures of Direct Tax collections for the financial year (FY) 2023-24 show that net collections are at Rs19.58 lakh crore, compared to Rs16.64 lakh crore in the preceding financial year i.e. FY 2022-23,” it said, adding the Budget for 2023-24 fiscal had pegged the collections for the year at Rs18.23 lakh crore, which were revised to Rs19.45 lakh crore later.

“The provisional Direct Tax collections (net of the refunds) have exceeded the Budget Estimate by 7.40 per cent and Revised Estimates by 0.67 per cent,” it said.