With Almost A Crore New Tax Assesses, India’s Direct Tax Collection Surge 18 Per Cent And Exceeds Rs 10 Lakh Crore

India's Direct tax collection has grown by 18 per cent and has crossed Rs 10 lakh crore for the fiscal year 2017-18, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said.

The Finance Minister attributed the the surge in direct tax collection to the efficiency of the tax department and the rise in the number of honest tax payers. He also credited what he called the "historical revenue receipt" to the accountable governance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The reported direct tax collection for 2017-18 of Rs 10.02 lakh crore represents an 18 per cent increase over the collection for the year 2016-2017.

Jaitley also added that the number of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filed rose to 6.84 crore during 2017-18, compared to 5.43 crore filed in 2016-17. This is a 26 per cent growth in the filing of ITRs compared to the last fiscal year.

Of all the ITRs filed, 6.74 crore returns were e-filed. Between 30 and 31 March, the last day of the fiscal year 2017-18, 56 lakh ITRs were filed.

He said that two transformational steps taken by his government - demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax implementation - has resulted in higher formalisation of the Indian economy.

The Central Board Of Direct Taxes Chairman (CBDT) Sushil Chandra said that a net of 99.5 lakh new assessees were added to the tax net. CBDT chairman further said that net collection from corporate tax went up 17.1 per cent while that from personal income tax rose 18.9 per cent.

The government had  originally estimated the direct tax collection to be Rs 9.80 lakh crore from direct taxes, including Income Tax and Corporate Tax.  However, buoyed by the revenue growth, it upwardly revised its estimates to Rs 10.05 lakh crore.

The reported collection for fiscal year 201-18 means that India's direct taxes stands at 7 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Income tax at 2.4 per cent of GDP.