The government’s direct tax collections up to January 2017, at ₹5.82 lakh crore, were up 10.8% compared to the April-January period of the last financial year, according to official data released on Friday. Most of the growth registered was in personal income tax collections compared to corporate tax collections.
Net indirect tax collections in the April 2016-January 2017 period grew to ₹7.03 lakh crore, which is 23.9% higher than the collections witnessed in the same period of the previous year.
Within direct taxes, net personal income tax collections, after taking into account refunds, grew 23.1%. Net corporate tax collections, in comparison, only grew 2.9%.
“Refunds amounting to ₹1.41 lakh crore have been issued during April 2016-January 2017, which is 41.0% higher than the refunds issued during the corresponding period last year,” the government statement said.
In indirect taxes, service tax collections grew to ₹2.03 lakh crore in April 2016-January 2017 as compared with ₹1.66 lakh crore during the corresponding period in the previous financial year, a growth of 22.0%.
Net central excise duty collections stood at ₹3.13 lakh crore during that period as compared to ₹2.23 lakh crore last year, a growth of 40.5%.
Net customs duty collections grew 4.7% to ₹1.86 lakh crore.
“During January 2017, the net indirect tax collections grew at the rate of 16.9% compared to corresponding month last year,” the statement added. “The growth rate in net collection for customs, central excise and service tax was 10.1%, 26.3% and 9.4% respectively during the month of January 2017, compared to the corresponding month last year.”