Poor corporate tax realisation on account of slow economic activity kept growth in gross direct tax collection low at 5.87 per cent during April-September,as against an annual target of 15 per cent. The gross direct tax collection during the first six months of 2012-13 worked out to be Rs 2.72 lakh crore,up from Rs 2.57 lakh crore in the corresponding period last year,a Finance Ministry statement said. Corporate tax collection during the period grew by just 1.60 per cent at Rs 1.78 lakh crore. It was Rs 1.75 lakh crore during the corresponding period last fiscal. The personal Income Tax collection,however,was up by 14.87 per cent at Rs 93,451 crore in the first half of the fiscal. It was Rs 81,353 crore in the same period last year. Wealth tax collection recorded a growth of 53.9 per cent at Rs 474 crore,against Rs 308 crore in same period last year. Securities Transaction Tax (STT) collection declined by 17.03 per cent at Rs 2,076 crore in the six-month period,from Rs 2,502 crore in the corresponding period last year. The net direct tax collection was up by a healthy 16.32 per cent to about Rs 2.26 lakh crore against Rs 1.94 lakh crore in the same period last year,primarily on account of lower refunds. The country's industrial production growth rate declined by 0.1 per cent in the April-July period of the current fiscal compared to a growth rate of 6.1 per cent in the same period last fiscal. Finance Minister P Chidambaram last month had said I-T Department will adopt a non-adversarial approach in realising the direct tax target of Rs 5.70 lakh crore for 2012-13. He had said collections would improve in the second half of the fiscal and the government would achieve the 15 per cent growth target during the financial year.
