Effective tax base growth highest in five years

Even though the direct tax collection missed the revised estimate by Rs 62,000 crore, it grew by 13.5 per cent compared with FY18

The effective taxpayer base grew 13.5 per cent for the assessment year (AY) 2018-19, recording the highest rate in the last five years, the Finance Ministry said in a reply in the Lok Sabha. The tax base, which includes assessees filing I-T returns along with those whose tax is deducted at source, rose to 8.44 crore in 2018-19, compared with 7.42 crore in FY18.

Even though the direct tax collection missed the revised estimate by Rs 62,000 crore, it grew by 13.5 per cent compared with FY18. It was second-slowest growth in direct tax collection in last five years. The Budget estimate for current fiscal shows that collections would need to increase by over 22 per cent from actual collections.”The direct-tax GDP ratio for the FY 2017-18 was 5.86 per cent and for 2018-19, it was 5.98 per cent (provisional),” it said.

The e-returns filing also grew by nearly 19 per cent in AY19 to 6.49 crore, compared with 5.47 crore for AY18, it said. It said while IT department issued over 1.61 lakh crore in refunds in last fiscal, it has already issued Rs 64,700 crore in refunds till June 18.

“All field authorities have been instructed to issue refunds up to Rs 5,000 without any adjustment against outstanding demand,” the ministry said.—FE