The economy may have slackened this fiscal, but the Centre’s net direct tax collections are definitely looking up.

Till December 20 this fiscal, the overall net direct tax collections on a year-on-year basis grew 13.7 per cent to Rs 4.13 lakh crore, raising hopes that the Government will hit the Budget target for direct taxes.

During the same period in the previous year, the net direct tax collections stood at Rs 3.63 lakh crore, the official data released on Saturday show.

personal i-t

The buoyancy in direct tax collections this year has been largely the result of better showing on the advance tax front.

For 2013-14, the Centre had budgeted 18 per cent growth in direct tax collections with a tax mop-up target of Rs 6.68 lakh crore.

Corporate tax collections up to December 20 grew 10.2 per cent to Rs 2.6 lakh crore (Rs 2.3 lakh crore collected to that date last year).

On the other hand, personal income tax collections grew 20.5 per cent to Rs 1.4 lakh crore (Rs 1.2 lakh crore).

While the securities transaction tax, a levy on the trades put through stock exchanges, for the period under review stood at Rs 3,427 crore, wealth tax stood at Rs 752 crore, the statement shows.

ADVANCE TAX

Out of the overall net direct collections, contributions by way of advance tax up to the December quarter stood at Rs 2 lakh crore, reflecting an overall growth of 8.8 per cent.

As much as 49 per cent of the Centre’s net direct tax collections is accounted for by advance tax.

Advance tax collections from corporates grew 8.4 per cent to Rs 1.7 lakh crore. This is better than the 7 per cent growth rate in the same period last year, an official release said.

Advance tax collections under personal income tax stood at Rs 25,686 crore, reflecting a rise of 11.9 per cent up to this quarter.