At Rs 14.71 trn, direct tax collection strikes 86.6% of FY23 target by Jan 10

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The Centres net direct taxation, after adjusting for refunds, grew 19.55 percent during the present fiscal year as much as January 10,
touching 86.68 per cent of the FY23 Budget Estimates (BE). Information launched by the financing ministry on Wednesday showed that gross
direct taxes grew 24.58 percent to Rs 14.71 trillion approximately 10 January
Net tax collections during the exact same duration stood at Rs 12.31 trillion compared to the Rs 14-trillion target in the FY23
Budget. Aditi Nayar, primary financial expert at ICRA Ratings, said she anticipates direct taxes to exceed the BE by Rs 2.2 trillion on a
gross basis. We anticipate a healthy overshoot in direct taxes and CGST (central products and services tax) to absorb a considerable part
of the extra expenditure
The fiscal deficit may exceed the allocated level by Rs 80,000 crore however a greater small gross domestic product (GDP) will limit it to
6.4 percent of GDP, she added. The Advance Estimates (AE) for FY23, launched last week, put small GDP growth at 15.4 percent
This is against 11.1 percent assumed in the Budget at the start of the current fiscal year. This is anticipated to allow the government to
invest about Rs 97,000 crore more than the BE
And still, it can satisfy the fiscal deficit target of 6.44 per cent at the end of the present fiscal year. On a gross basis, collections
from corporate income tax (CIT) grew 19.72 per cent, while individual earnings tax (PIT) increased 30.46 per cent
After changing refunds, the net development in CIT collections is 18.33 per cent
And for PIT (consisting of securities transaction tax), it is 20.97 percent. Excluding securities deal tax (STT), PIT grew 21.64 per cent
throughout the duration. The finance ministry released refunds amounting to Rs 2.4 trillion till January 10
These are 58.74 per cent higher than the refunds released during the very same duration in 2015. The Centre is most likely to keep its
ambition for growth in direct tax collections moderate for FY24 with small GDP expected to ease considerably in the next fiscal. According
to an initial internal assessment, the financing ministry, which is working on Revised Estimates (RE) for the current fiscal year and BE for
FY24, as part of the Budget-making workout, is looking at pegging growth in direct taxation to 14-17 per cent for FY24
This is over Rs 14.2 trillion BE of FY23. The Budget is expected to presume small GDP development of 10-11 percent for FY24.