Marginal 3.7% Hike in Direct Tax Recorded for First 8 Months of Fiscal Year
Despite the speedy recovery of the economy and strong quarterly growths, the Government's direct tax collections have recorded a mere 3.7% rise to Rs. 1.83 lakh crore in the current fiscal year's first 8 months, as compared to the same time last year.
With only 4 months left before the current financial year comes to a close, the target of Rs. 3.7 lakh crore, almost twice the tax collected till November, seems a little far-sighted. With the vision that the economic growth would be much stronger than expected, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had even gone ahead and revised the target to Rs. 4 lakh crore.
Despite the straining figures, officials of the Finance Ministry are confident that the target would be met. India's economic growth of 7.9% in the second quarter has managed to shock the whole world, and has fueled speculations that the complete financial year growth would be about 7%.
For the first 8 months of the financial year up-to November, corporate taxes hiked by 3.17% to Rs 1.13 lakh crore, a marginal rise from the figure of Rs 1.09 lakh crore recorded for the same period for 2008. On the personal income tax front, collection of Rs 70,262 crore made a 4/53% rise from last year.
