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Journalism of Courage
Reason behind the recent fervent pleas by the finance minister urging people to file their returns becomes clear with one look at the tax collection figures for this fiscal’s first half. Income tax collections from April 2005 to September 2005 actually raked in 16.25 per cent less revenue than the Rs 25,175 crore during the same period last year.
According to numbers released by the Controller General of Accounts, the Centre managed to garner 24 per cent higher tax revenues in the first half of this year, despite the sluggish collection on the income tax front. As opposed to Rs 77,860 crore collected during the first half of last fiscal, the Centre has collected Rs 96,249 crore this year.
A spurt in corporate tax and excise duty collections helped the government’s coffers defy the ebbing tide of income tax collections. While corporate taxes jumped by 66.81 per cent to Rs 33,926 crore indicating sharp industrial growth, excise duty picked up by 10.35 per cent to Rs 40,416 crore in the first half of 2005-06. Despite the relatively less sparkling rise, the excise duty collections form a major part of revenue so far, contributing 41.99 per cent of the total tax revenues.
On the customs duty counter, collections rose 24.08 per cent to Rs 31,276 crore during the first half of this fiscal. Revenue collections till Sept. 2005 are 35.2 per cent of the estimated Rs 2,73,466 crore collections for the whole financial year. Last year, total half yearly tax revenue collections were only 33.3 per cent of the estimated figure for the whole fiscal.
