The Central Government has asked the private sector companies to pay advance taxes on time so that the government is able to meet its target of Rs 4 lakh crore in revenues in this fiscal.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in a meeting today with the Income Tax department officials discussed measures for timely collection and also asked them to try to bring in the remaining collections for the year by March.

The collections in the Direct Tax segment grew 8.5 per cent to Rs 2.5 lakh crore in the first nine months of the current financial year over the corresponding period of the previous year. The Personal income tax on the other hand declined 0.41 per cent.

The government had first set a target of Rs 3.7 lakh crore which was later revised to Rs 4 lakh crore for the current financial year.

As the measures to improve collections, the CBDT will persuade loss-making companies liable to a minimum alternate tax rate of 15 per cent to pay such taxes as advance tax during the current fiscal.

It will also scrutinize taxes deducted on source for the deposits of private entities, state governments and local bodies. The department will focus on collecting arrears. The collection from the scrutiny is likely to more than Rs
25,000 crore.

The government has taken many steps to make tax filing easier such as facilities of electronic payment of taxes and a processing centre set up in the city of Bangalore to speed up returns and issue of refunds to taxpayers.