New Delhi, Feb 4 (Inditop.com) In a bid to ensure realisation of revenue targets for this fiscal, revised upward to Rs.4,000 billion ($80 billion), the government Thursday asked the corporate sector not to defer payment of advance tax and ordered a close scrutiny of collections.
India’s direct tax collections have been just Rs.2,500 billion in the first nine months of this fiscal, growing at 8.5 percent over the corresponding period of the previous year. In fact, personal income tax has actually seen a decline of 0.41 percent.
This had obviously made the finance ministry jittery. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), accordingly convened a meeting of all top officials of the Income Tax Department on steps to be taken to mop up the remaining amount of collections targeted for this year by end-March.
The government had budgeted direct tax collections at Rs.3,700 billion, against which an enhanced internal target of Rs.4,000 billion was set by the finance ministry in December.
Among the measures the government has asked CBDT to take are:
– Persuade top companies not to defer advance tax payment as self-assessment tax for the next fiscal
– Monitor tax payments of loss-making companies liable to minimum alternate tax rate of 15 percent
– Persuade such companies to make such payment as advance tax during the current fiscal
– Monitor tax deducted at source deposits by private deductors, state governments, local bodies
– Focus on collection of tax arrears, as well as tax demand raised in scrutiny assessments during the current fiscal.
