The finance ministry is likely to exceed its total tax collection target of Rs 7.82 lakh crore for 2010-11. It is expected to surpass the Revised Estimates for direct as well as indirect tax collections."As of today, it appears that we have crossed the target for both (direct and indirect taxes) I believe we will marginally exceed Rs. 7.82 lakh crore. We will get a clear picture after April 15," said Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra.
In the Budget for 2011-12, the government revised the tax mop-up target for 2010-11 to Rs. 4.46 lakh crore for direct taxes and Rs. 3.36 lakh crore for indirect taxes.
Till now, direct tax collections are at Rs. 4.41 lakh crore. This excludes Rs. 6,000 crore worth of taxes collected by states and given to the Centre.
The Controller General of Accounts will compile the figures and send them to the central government by around April 10. This is likely to take the total direct tax collections to Rs. 4.47 lakh crore at the end of March 2011.
The revenue department has recorded 21.9 per cent growth in corporation tax and 21 per cent growth in personal income tax collections till March 26.
The direct tax
collections are expected to exceed the target despite the refund drive started by the Income Tax Department. Income-tax refunds have been close to Rs. 80,000 crore so far for 2010-11, against Rs. 57,000 crore in the previous year.
The revenue department has collected Rs. 3.36 lakh crore from indirect taxes, which includes Customs receipts only till March 29. The figure will go up once the collections for the remaining two days are included.
In Customs, the growth as on March 26 over the previous year was 63.69 per cent. Growth in central excise moderated to 35.4 per cent. Service tax showed an increase of 20.81 per cent.
"Incidentally, our target for indirect taxes was Rs. 3.35 lakh crore because Rs. 1,500 crore is additionally collected through the CGA mechanism and comes to indirect taxes account from states. We will definitely exceed Rs. 3.36 lakh crore because that Rs. 1,500 crore is yet to come. We are estimating Rs. 4,000-5,000 crore in excess," Mitra added.
In the Budget last year, the government had estimated its total tax collections for 2010-11 at Rs. 7.45 lakh crore. Of this, the target for direct tax collections was Rs. 4.30 lakh crore, while it had budgeted Rs. 3.15 lakh crore from indirect tax receipts.
