(FE)
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said that the direct tax collection target for the current fiscal is ‘eminently achievable’ given that the mop-up has nearly doubled in the last five years. Sitharaman was speaking at the Income Tax Day event organised by the direct tax department.
Sitharaman revealed that during the budget preparation exercise, the revenue secretary had urged her not to aim too high with the direct tax collection estimate. “The target is not a big deal as it is not high at all,” she said.
Since FY14, the direct tax collection has grown by about 80% to Rs 11.37 lakh crore in FY19. The Budget estimate for the current fiscal is at Rs 13.35 lakh crore, which translates into a growth of 17.4% from the actual collection in the last fiscal. The direct tax collection, which includes personal income tax and corporate tax, fell short of the revised estimate for last fiscal, which was set at Rs 12 lakh crore. This prompted the government to cut down the budget estimate in the full Budget from the interim Budget estimate of Rs 13.8 lakh crore.
