Govt comes within sniffing distance of FY '14 tax target

Indirect taxes may lag by Rs 12,000 cr

In an indication that the economy is rebounding and output in factories is showing signs of pick-up, the government on Friday said it has almost met its tax collection target for 2013-14.

According to a revenue department official, income tax authorities have mopped up Rs 6.37 lakh crore for the year, marginally exceeding the target of Rs 6.36 lakh crore.The official, however, said that the indirect tax collection target will fall short by about Rs 12,000 crore.

Last year, the government had mopped up Rs 5.58 lakh crore in direct taxes, including Rs 3.56 lakh crore in corporate tax, Rs 2.01 lakh crore in income tax and the rest as wealth tax.

Indications of a robust tax collection have been evident when Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairman R K Tewari said last month that by the third week of March India had collected Rs 5.82 lakh crore, which was 13.6 per cent higher than the last year's collection during the corresponding period.

The record collection in direct tax revenues is the result of government’s efforts to take steps to galvanise departments to make up for the shortfall. 

The tax department had cancelled leaves of all officials on tax collection duty and ordered round-the-clock functioning of its offices till March 31.

E-filing of tax returns too had been received well by the public and about 66 per cent of taxpayers, who were not required to file e-returns, opted for it.

The collections are expected to help Finance Minister P Chidambaram meet his red line for fiscal deficit at 4.6 per cent of the GDP in 2013-14.

The direct tax mop-ups were not very encouraging in the second and the third quarters. Corporate tax collections too have shown robust growth in the fourth quarter, the official said.