At Rs 21.26 lakh crore, net direct tax collection up 13%

Aided by higher advance tax mop up, net direct tax kitty rose 13.13 per cent to over Rs 21.26 lakh crore this fiscal till March 16, the government said on Monday.

According to the data released by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the government collected Rs 10.44 lakh crore from four instalments of advance tax during the current financial year, as against Rs 9.11 lakh crore in the previous fiscal, logging an increase of 14.62 per cent.

For the current fiscal, the last instalment of the advance tax payment was due on March 15. As per Section 208 of the Income-Tax Act, an individual, including salaried taxpayers, whose estimated tax liability is likely to be over Rs 10,000 (after considering tax deducted and collected at source -- TDS and TCS) is required to pay advance tax that year.

The rules stipulate advance tax payment before the end of the financial year on the income that one would have earned that year and is to be paid in four instalments -- June 15, September 15, December 15, and March 15 of the financial year.

The CBDT figures showed that advance tax collection under the corporate tax category grew by 12.54 per cent to Rs 7.57 lakh crore, while non-corporates registered an increase of 20.47 per cent to Rs 2.87 lakh crore during the current fiscal so far.

The mop up from net non-corporate taxes, which include mainly personal income tax, rose 17 per cent year-on-year to about Rs 11.01 lakh crore, the government data revealed, while showing that net corporate tax collection grew in single digits at 7 per cent to Rs 9.69 lakh crore between April 1, 2024, and March 16, 2025.

While net collections from securities transaction tax (STT) went up around 56 per cent to Rs 53,095 crore so far this fiscal, the refunds worth more than Rs 4.60 lakh crore were issued during the period as against Rs 3.47 lakh crore in the year-ago period.

The CBDT said gross direct tax collection till March 16 surged 16.15 per cent to more than Rs 25.86 lakh crore.

Pegging income tax collections at Rs 12.57 lakh crore, up from the Budget estimate of Rs 11.87 lakh crore, the government, in the revised estimates (RE) for the current fiscal, has estimated the collection from STT at Rs 55,000 crore in this fiscal, higher than the budget estimate (BE) of Rs 37,000 crore.

Revising the corporate tax collection target lower at Rs 9.80 lakh crore, down from the Budget target of Rs 10.20 lakh crore, the RE, in total, estimated direct tax collections at Rs 22.37 lakh crore, higher from Rs 22.07 lakh crore in BE.