In spite of the Centre collecting a whopping 74 percent more direct taxes so far this fiscal on an annualized basis at Rs 5.70 lakh crore, it has also borrowed a massive 58 percent of the budgeted amount during the same period by selling Rs 7.02 lakh crore worth of debt securities in the market. While at the weekly auction of government securities earlier in the day on Friday, it mopped up Rs 31,000 crore in long-term and short-term debt at an average price of 6.15 percent, later in the day, the revenue department said the net personal income tax and corporate tax collection jumped a full 74 percent to Rs 5.70 lakh crore so far this fiscal, driven mainly by advance tax and TDS payments.
The mop-up of net direct tax (after deducting refunds from gross collection) between April 1 and September 22 was Rs 5,70,568 crore, a 74.4 percent growth over Rs 3.27 lakh crore collected in the same period last fiscal, the Central Board of Direct Taxes said in a statement.
What is more, the net collection is a full 27 percent more than the Rs 4.48 lakh crore it had collected in FY20 -- or the pre-pandemic period. On top of that it has been collecting a record amount of indirect taxes by way of GST (that has been topping Rs 1 lakh crore almost every month) and record duties from petroleum products at Rs 94,181 crore in the first quarter on the back of a record tax on fuel that yielded 88 percent higher revenue than the previous financial year.
With these the total market borrowings so far this fiscal is Rs 7.02 lakh crore, which is 8 percent less than it had mopped up this time last fiscal when it was Rs 7.66 lakh crore, and Rs 12,652 crore less than the notified amount of the auctions so far. Stated differently, the debt raised so far in FY22 is 58 percent of the total budgeted borrowing limit of Rs 12.05 lakh crore for the fiscal year and 52 percent if the GST compensation to the states amounting to Rs 1.58 lakh crore is added to the borrowing limit for the year, the report said.
The CBDT said gross direct tax collection so far this fiscal stands at over Rs 6.45 lakh crore, a full 47 percent more than the Rs 4.39 lakh crore mopped up in the same period last year and 16.75 percent more than the same period in FY20 when it was Rs 5.53 lakh crore. of the total mop-up Rs 2.53 lakh crore is advance tax and tax deducted at source of Rs 3.19 lakh crore. Self-assessment tax worth Rs 41,739 crore, regular assessment tax of Rs 25,558 crore, dividend distribution tax of Rs 4,406 crore, and tax under other minor heads of Rs 1,383 crore totaled the mop-up to 74 percent more than last year levels.
Advance tax collection so far this fiscal is Rs 2,53,353 crore up 56 per cent from Rs 1,62,037 crore a year ago. Advance tax collection comprises corporation tax of Rs 1.96 lakh crore and personal income tax of Rs 56,389 crore.