Government will bring down corporate income tax rate: Hasmukh Adhia

NEW DELHI: Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on Monday said that the Government will bring down its corporate income tax rate, once they witness a surge in the personal income tax collections.

"When it comes to the demand for reduction in the corporate income tax rate, we are not denying the claim that yes we should bring down the overall corporate income tax rate in India. But, the present balance, what is happening in most of the countries is that personal income tax is much higher compared to corporate income tax. While in India, the other side has to go up. Once that goes up, then we will have some more scope for reduction," Hasmukh Adhia said while speaking at a session organised by CII.

"But till then the effective tax rate of corporates whose turnover is more than Rs. 500 crore is only 24 percent," he added.

Union Budget 2018 which was presented on February 1 by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, had proposed no changes in the income tax rates and slabs.

Jaitley had proposed to cut corporate income tax rate to 25 percent for companies with a turnover of up to Rs. 250 crore.

"This will see the extension of a trend as the share of corporate tax to total revenues has come down from 34.45 percent in 2014-15 to 28.18 percent in 2017-18, under the Modi government," Jaitley had said in his Budget speech.

Earlier in 2015, the minister had pledged to bring down corporate taxes to 25 percent from 30 percent over four years.