New Delhi: Direct tax collections grew by more than 18% in the first nine months of this fiscal, in a breather for the government struggling to meet the fiscal deficit target.
The growth in direct tax collections could offset the shortfall in revenues from the goods and services tax (GST) and fund government spending in key sectors of the economy.
Net direct tax collections for the nine months, ending December, rose 18.2% to Rs6.56 trillion. These numbers were 67% of the budgeted direct tax collections of Rs9.8 trillion for the full year, the tax department said in a statement. This means the remaining one-third of tax collections have to come in the last quarter of 2017-18.
Gross tax collections before adjusting for refunds grew 12.6% to Rs7.6 trillion. Refunds in the period amounted to Rs1.12 trillion.
Advance tax collections grew by 12.7% to Rs3.18 trillion led by good growth in personal advance income tax collections. Personal advance income tax collections grew by 21.6%, while corporate advance tax collections grew by 10.9%.