Central tax kitty exceeds Rs 7.92 lakh cr

Economic growth helped jump in collection

The total Budget estimate for direct and indirect tax collections was Rs 7.45 lakh crore for the last fiscal, which was revised upwards to Rs 7.80 lakh crore.

“But, the actual collection at the end of financial year 2010-11 was Rs 7.92 lakh crore,” a Finance Ministry official said. In 2009-10, the government had collected about Rs 5.72 lakh crore.  The official said higher tax collection will provide more elbow room to the government to fund development projects, besides reducing the fiscal deficit. Of the total, the direct tax mop up was about Rs 4.50 lakh crore and indirect tax, about Rs 3.42 lakh crore.

The government had earlier estimated a direct tax collection of Rs 4.30 lakh crore and revised it to Rs 4.46 lakh crore.

Robust collection

Despite the income tax department’s having paid Rs 72,000 crore in refunds, the robust direct tax collection is the highest in any financial year. Similarly, the indirect tax collection of about Rs 3.42 lakh crore in 2010-11 is higher than the revised estimate of Rs 3.34 lakh crore.

The high tax collection is due to robust economic growth in the last fiscal, the official said. India’s GDP is estimated to have grown 8.6 per cent in 2010-11.

The buoyancy in indirect tax collections can also be attributed to partial withdrawal of economic stimulus measures in the Budget 2010-11.