By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEPT 12, 2016: LIKE the previous fiscal, the trend of revenue collections inferred from the five month data up to August, 2016 indicates that the indirect taxes collections continue to race ahead of the direct taxes mop-up. Certainly not a good trend from the equity perspective in the society but the Exchequer is happy with the buoyancy in the revenue kitty.

As per the latest data, the Central Excise, Service Tax and Customs mop-up in the first five-month of this fiscal has registered a growth rate of 27.5%. Net collections are about 3.4 lakh crore. Till August 2016, 43.2% of the Budget Estimates of indirect taxes for Financial Year 2016-17 has been achieved.

On the direct taxes front, net revenue collections are at Rs. 1.89 lakh crore which is 15.03% more than the net collections for the corresponding period last year. Till August 2016, 22.30% of the Budget Estimates of direct taxes for Financial Year 2016-17 has been achieved.

As regards the growth rates for Corporate Income Tax (CIT) and Personal Income Tax (PIT), in terms of gross revenue collections, the growth rate under CIT is 11.55% while that under PIT (including STT etc.) is 24.06%. However, after adjusting for refunds, the net growth in CIT collections is (-)1.89% while that in PIT collections is 31.76%. Refunds amounting to Rs. 77,080 crore have been issued during April-August, 2016, which is 22.18% higher than the refunds issued during the corresponding period last year.

As regards Central Excise, net tax collections stood at Rs.1.53 lakh crore during April-August, 2016 as compared to Rs.1.03 lakh crore during the corresponding period in the previous Financial Year, thereby registering a growth of 48.8%.

Net Tax collections on account of Service Tax during April-August, 2016 stood at Rs.92,696 crore as compared to Rs. 75,219 crore during the corresponding period in the previous Financial Year, thereby registering a growth of 23.2%.

Net Tax collections on account of Customs during April-August 2016 stood at Rs. 90,448 crore as compared to Rs. 85,557 crore during the same period in the previous Financial Year, thereby registering a growth of 5.7%.