The Government’s revenue collection during April to December of the current fiscal year has shown a strong growth, indirect tax collection surged by 25 percent to 6.30 lakh crore on the back of robust collection in excise duty mop-up, while direct tax collection rose by 12.01 percent to Rs 5.53 lakh crore led by increase in personal income tax. The total direct and indirect tax collections at the end of December stood at Rs 11.83 lakh crore, more than half the Rs 16.26 lakh crore target for 2016-17.
In indirect tax collections, excise collections during April-December jumped 43 percent to Rs 2.79 lakh crore as compared to Rs 1.95 lakh crore during the corresponding period in the previous financial year. Service tax collections in the same period clocked a growth of 23.9 percent to 1.83 lakh crore as compared to Rs 1.48 lakh crore year-on-year bases. Net Tax collections on account of Customs during April-October 2016 stood at Rs 1.67 lakh crore as compared to Rs 1.60 lakh crore in same period of the previous year, registering a growth of 4.1 percent. The net indirect tax collection till December 2016, achieved 81 percent of the Budget estimates for 2016-17.
During December 2016, the net indirect tax (with ARM) grew at the rate of 14.2 percent as compared to corresponding month last year. The growth rate in net collection for Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax was (-) 6.3%, 31.6% and 12.4% respectively during the month of December, 2016, compared to the corresponding month last year. The de-growth in customs collections appear to be on account of a decline of gold imports by about 46% (in volume terms) in December 2016 over December 2015.
On the direct tax front, the gross revenue collections of corporate income tax (CIT) grew at 10.7 percent, while under personal income tax (PIT) it was 21.7 percent over the corresponding period last fiscal. However, after adjusting for refunds, the net growth in CIT collections is 4.4 percent, while under PIT, it is 24.6 percent. Refunds amounting to Rs 1,26,371 crore have been issued during April-December 2016, was up by 30.5 percent from a year ago. Direct tax collection till December 2016, accounted for 65.3 percent of the Budget estimates for 2016-17.