Although almost every Indian consumer pays indirect taxes such as GST applied on products and passed on to them, only 5 per cent pay direct taxes such as income tax, property tax and corporate tax. Of India's total tax collection, 53 per cent comes from indirect levies, while the rest comes from direct taxpayers. Even though the new tax regime has raised the rebate limit from Rs 5 lakh per annum to Rs 7 lakh, direct tax collection for FY23 continues to surge.
At Rs 15.67 lakh crore till February 10 in FY23, the direct tax collection is 24.09 per cent higher than the same period for FY22. With more than a month to go for the financial year's end, 91 per cent of the budget estimates for direct taxes has already been achieved. With business growth remaining resilient despite recession, corporate tax surged by almost 20 per cent and personal income tax also increased by close to 30 per cent.
Refunds in the April to February 10th period also went up by 61.58 per cent, hitting Rs 2.69 lakh crore. This has also driven the government estimates of 10.5 per cent growth in corporate and individual tax inflows for FY24 to Rs 18.23 lakh crore.
