Revenue Secretary: Govt will exceed FY22 tax collection target, with direct tax mop-up at Rs 6 lakh crore until Oct

The government’s tax collection kitty will exceed budget forecasts this fiscal year, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said, with net direct tax collection close to Rs 6 lakh crore and average monthly GST mop-up likely over Rs 1.15 lakh crore.

In an interview with PTI, Bajaj said that excise duty relief on gasoline and diesel, as well as customs duty relief on edible oil, will cost the exchequer about Rs 80,000 crore this fiscal year, and that the revenue department will begin calculating the tax mop-up position in relation to budget estimates for this fiscal after the December advance tax number is released.

“Since October, we have collected nearly Rs 6 lakh crore in direct taxes, including refunds… It appears to be in good shape. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to beat it.” Despite the fact that we have given a lot of relief in indirect taxes such as petrol, diesel, and edible oil, and there is some sunset in customs duty where the total benefit would be around Rs 75,000-80,000 crore, I believe we should still exceed the budgeted estimates on both direct and indirect taxes,” Bajaj said.

For the fiscal year 2021-22, the government has budgeted a 9.5% increase in tax collections, totaling Rs 22.2 lakh billion (April-March). The mop-up for the previous fiscal year was Rs 20.2 lakh crore.

Direct tax collections are expected to be about Rs 11 lakh, with corporate tax receipts of Rs 5.47 lakh crore and income tax revenues of Rs 5.61 lakh crore. In terms of GST income, Bajaj predicted that November collections will be strong, while December collections will be lukewarm. In the March quarter, there will be a noticeable increase in collections.