Direct tax mop up for 2024-25 fiscal misses target owing to higher refunds

The net direct tax collection for the 2024-25 financial year narrowly missed the target of ₹22.37 crore, even as it grew 13.57% to over ₹22.26 lakh crore, due to the issuance of the highest-ever amount of refunds, official data said on Friday.

The government set a target of ₹22,07,000 crore for the direct tax administration as per the budget receipt of July 2024. It was revised to ₹22,37,000 crore during the budget presented in February this year.

Direct taxes include revenue collected by the Union government under the corporate taxes, securities transaction tax (STT) and non-corporate taxes category (earlier personal income tax). The non-corporate taxes category includes taxes paid by individuals, firms, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs), local authorities, artificial juridical persons, etc.

According to official data, the provisional gross (before adjusting for refunds) direct tax collection for the 2024-25 fiscal that ended March 31 stood at ₹27.02 lakh crore, a growth of 15.59%, when compared to the gross collection of ₹23.37 lakh crore during the 2023-24 fiscal.

Similarly, the provisional figures for net (after issuing refunds) direct tax collections for the 2024-25 fiscal stood at ₹22.26 lakh crore, an increase of 13.57% as compared to ₹19.60 lakh crore in the preceding fiscal, the data showed.

Revenue collection from the STT grew to ₹53,296 crore during the last fiscal from ₹34,192 crore during the preceding financial year of 2023-24.

The provisional net direct tax collections are 100.78% as per the July receipt budget target (₹22.07 lakh crore) and 99.51% of the revised estimate target presented during the February budget (₹22.37 crore).

These direct tax collection figures are provisional and the collections are expected to grow as last stage reconciliation and adjustments for the 2024-25 fiscal are still underway, officials said.

The data shows that the tax department issued the highest-ever refunds worth ₹4,76,743 crore during the 2024-25 fiscal, an increase of 26.04% as compared to the refunds of ₹3,78,255 crore issued during the last fiscal of 2023-24.

"The gross direct tax collection has exceeded the budget target of ₹22.37 lakh crore and the income tax department was able to achieve these high numbers even after issuing a record ₹4.76 lakh crore in refunds," an official said.

This is due to the commitment that the department has made to the taxpayers that we stand by them and their rightful claims will be honoured in a transparent and fair manner, the official said.

Breaking down the figures further, the data said the net corporate tax collection (provisional) during the last fiscal of 2024-25 stood at ₹9,86,719 crore, a growth of 8.30% over the preceding year.

The gross tax collection figures for the same head (corporate tax) stood at ₹12,72,516 crore (2024-25), an increase of 12.41% over the preceding year.

Coming to non-corporate tax, the net provisional mop up during 2024-25 stood at ₹11,82,875 crore, a growth of 17% over the preceding year.

The tax buoyancy factor, which is the rate of direct tax to the growth of GDP, was registered at 1.57 during the 2024-25 fiscal as compared to 1.54 during the comparative period of 2023-24.