India’s I-T receipt up by 17.7% from last fiscal, hits Rs 19.58 tn

India’s income tax receipts rose by 17.7 per cent to approximately Rs 19.58 trillion (around US$234.9 billion) in the fiscal year 2023-’24 that concluded in March. The calculation, done on a year-on-year basis, reveals an increase in the income of India’s rich taxpayer besides profits recorded by the corporate sector, and includes personal as well as corporate levies, according to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

The tax receipt amount is up from Rs 16.64 trillion in the previous fiscal year. In February, the government had set a revised target of Rs 19.45 trillion for the fiscal 2023-’24 when the interim budget for 2024-’25 was presented. Ultimately, the current fiscal’s collections, at Rs 19.58 trillion, have exceeded the government target by 7.4 per cent, the CBDT statement added.

A total number of 82 million people filed income tax returns in 2023-’24. This marks a nine per cent jump from the numbers registered in the previous fiscal year.

As far as net personal income tax receipts go, collections rose by 25 per cent in 2023-’24 from the previous fiscal year to scale the Rs 10.44-trillion mark. The figure includes security transaction tax that is charged on dealings such as mutual funds and stocks.

The CBDT, India’s authoritative body that is responsible for the administration and implementation of laws pertaining to direct taxes through the Department of Income Tax, has also released figures pertaining to corporate tax receipts. According to the CBDT, corporate tax collected in the fiscal 2023-’24 is Rs 9.11 trillion. This is a 10.26-per cent rise from the previous fiscal, when corporate tax receipts stood at Rs 8.26 trillion rupees in the same period.

The staggering figures are mostly an outcome of income tax paid by wealthy individuals and business enterprises, and mostly reflect a growth in income among the top strata of society. Only a small section of Indian families had an income that was more than the tax exemption threshold of Rs 3,00,000 annually, according to a Reuters report.