Initial numbers suggest that direct tax collection is short of the revised target by over Rs 19,028 crore, but the Income Tax Department is hopeful of meeting the target once figures from across the country come.

The department has so far collected Rs 6,85,972 crore during the year gone by against the projected target of Rs 7,05,000 crore for fiscal 2015, thus falling short of Rs 19,028 crore as per the data internally released by the Department on April 4, a senior IT official told PTI here today. In FY14, the mop-up was Rs 5,83,000 cr.

Officials believe that the figures are yet to come from some regions and once all the figures are in, which may take more than a week, the target would be met.
So far only Delhi and Bangalore zones have been able to meet the targets, the official said.

New Delhi alone has collected Rs 1,02,083 crore in tax, up from Rs 86,619 crore in the previous fiscal, whereas Mumbai was able to mop up 2,26,305 crore, short of the Rs 2.30 trillion last fiscal.

The department revised the direct tax collection to Rs 7,05,000 crore for the fiscal 2014-15 against the initial projection of Rs 7,36,000 crore in view of the sluggish economic growth.

The official blamed the shortfall on sectors such as manufacturing which witnessed a slow growth.

However, many large corporations paid higher advance tax this fiscal, especially in the fourth quarter. While State Bank of India reportedly paid 23 percent more advance tax at about Rs 1,794 crore for the March quarter against around Rs 1,456 crore a year-ago, LIC paid Rs 1,470 crore, an increase of 15 percent over Rs 1,280 last year.
For the full fiscal, the insurance behemoth has paid Rs 5,880 crore against Rs 5,100 crore in the last financial year, while mortgage lender HDFC paid 12.8 per cent more at Rs 2,435 crore this fiscal. Rural development lender Nabard paid about Rs 1,560 crore, up from Rs 1,490 crore.