Tax kitty crosses estimate, govt mops up ₹ 17.10 lakh crore

A positive fallout of the demonetisation drive is that the government has exceeded the tax collection estimates for 2016-17 fiscal at Rs 17.10 lakh crore.

The revised estimates (RE) provided in Budget on February 1 had projected tax collections of Rs 16.97 lakh crore.

The Finance Ministry in a statement said that tax collection of Rs 17.10 lakh crore is a growth of around 18 per cent compared to last year.

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said, "Total net tax revenue grows at 18 per cent to Rs 17.10 lakh crore, highest in last 6 years." While direct tax mop up during the April-March period grew 14.2 per cent at Rs 8.47 lakh crore, indirect tax kitty swelled by 22 per cent over last year to Rs 8.63 lakh crore. Net direct tax collections at Rs 8.47 lakh crore shows 100 per cent achievement for RE of 2016-17. Indirect tax collection till March 2017 is 101.35 per cent of the RE for 2016-17 fiscal. The RE was pegged at Rs 8.5 lakh crore.

In terms of gross revenue collections, the growth rate in corporate tax was 13.1 per cent while that of personal income tax was 18.4 per cent.

However, after adjusting for refunds, the net growth in corporate tax collections is 6.7 per cent while that of personal I-T collections is 21 per cent.

Refunds amounting to Rs 1.62 lakh crore have been issued during April 2016-March 2017, which is 32.6 per cent higher than the refunds issued during FY 2015-16, the statement added.

In a related development, cash withdrawal has been falling rapidly, post demonetisation, as borne out by the fact that it is down to Rs 32,500 crore in the week to March 24 from a peak of Rs 52,800 crore for the week ended January 13, says a report. According to SBI research report Ecowrap, even in the span of one week (between March 17 to 24), cash withdrawal has declined by Rs 2,000 crore.

The report said the decline in cash withdrawals is "intriguing" even as limits on withdrawals were removed completely from March 13.