New Delhi: Country’s Direct Tax collections fell short by Rs.82,000 crore at 11.18 crore during 2018-19 with lower corporate tax collections emerging as one of the reasons for the lower mop. The government had set a target of Rs 12 lakh crore. Total tax collection numbers indicate that it got 13.4 pc more than the previous fiscal but fell short of the revised target of 18 per cent. A senior official told ANI that one of the reasons for the shortfall was lower corporate tax collections than anticipated. The collections from some regions were much below than those of last year.
Besides, profits of micro, small and medium enterprises have been lower, which had a negative impact on tax collections. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has constituted a committee for a central action plan for 2019-20 which will suggest areas of improvement. On March 26, CBDT Member (Revenue) Neena Kumar sent a letter to all regional chiefs, saying that as against the budget collection target of Rs 12 lakh crore, only 85.1 per cent or Rs 10.21 lakh crore was collected till March 23. “The minor head-wise analysis indicates worsening trend of negative growth in regular collections at minus 6.9 per cent as against minus 5.2 per cent in the last week. This is an alarming situation which needs immediate attention,” Kumar wrote in the letter.
