Govt collects non-tax receipts over Rs 2 lakh crore

The government has collected non-tax receipts over Rs 2 lakh crore in the current fiscal. The biggest share flows from dividends paid by PSUs and the RBI. The other major items of non-tax receipts are interest receipts, spectrum charges, royalty, licence fee, sale of forms and RTI application fee. The receipts are about 90% of the FY16 non-tax revenue estimate of Rs 2.21 lakh crore.

For the financial year 2015-16 Rs 1,00,651 crore has been budgeted from dividends. Of this Rs 36,174 crore is estimated to come from CPSEs and Rs 64,477 crore from banks, financial institutions and RBI. The RBI has already paid a dividend of Rs 65,896 crore in FY16, 25% more than the amount in the year ago period.

Besides, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has launched a Non-Tax Receipt Portal (NTRP) developed by Controller General of Accounts (CGA) which provides a one-stop platform to citizens or corporates or other users to make online payment of non-tax receipts to Government of India. As taxes are largely collected using the e-payment mode, non tax revenues flow mainly through physical instruments such as bank draft or cheque or cash. The online electronic payment will help common users/citizens from the hassle of visiting bank premises for issue of drafts, and later to Government offices to deposit the instrument for availing services. The online payments can be made by using either a credit card, a debit card or through net banking.

Recently the government has said it would meet the tax revenue target of Rs 14.49 lakh crore for the current fiscal as a small shortfall in direct tax revenue would be offset by the indirect tax collections. It expects Rs 40,000 crore extra mop up from indirect taxes to make up for the shortfall in direct levies.