Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur has said that the government has collected over Rs 7.52 lakh crore as direct taxes during April- January period of 2019-20. As per the revised estimate (RE), the target for collection of direct taxes was pegged at Rs 11.70 lakh crore for the current fiscal, which ends on March 31, 2020. Direct Tax includes corporate and income tax.
The minister said the last advance tax instalment is due in March 2020, and hence it is little premature to predict the final collection of direct taxes for the current year at this stage. He also said RE for current fiscal has projected revenue receipts at Rs 18.50 lakh crore, lower than Rs 19.62 lakh crore projected in the Budget.
Thakur further stated that lower estimated RE 2019-20 in respect of corporation tax, taxes on income, customs duty, excise duty and Goods and Services Tax have resulted in the revenue receipts being lower than the budget targets. He also noted that the government has raised fiscal deficit target to 3.8 percent of the GDP from 3.3 percent pegged earlier for 2019-20 due to revenue shortage.