Direct tax collections up 18% in FY24, top revised budget estimate

Government’s net direct tax collections, after adjusting for refunds, grew 17.7 per cent year-on-year to Rs 19.58 lakh crore in financial year 2023-24, exceeding the revised estimate of Rs 19.45 lakh crore by 0.67 per cent, as per the provisional estimates released by the Ministry of Finance.

Net direct tax collections had stood at Rs 16.64 lakh crore in the preceding financial year 2022-23. Refunds stood at Rs 3.79 lakh crore in FY24, an increase of 22.74 per cent over the refunds of Rs 3.09 lakh crore issued in FY23, the ministry said.

At gross level, which is before adjusting for refunds, direct taxes collections for FY 2023-24 stood at Rs 23.37 lakh crore, a growth of 18.48 per cent over the gross collection of Rs 19.72 lakh crore in previous financial year.

“The Budget Estimates (BE) for Direct Tax revenue in the Union Budget for FY 2023- 24 were fixed at Rs. 18.23 lakh crore which were revised and the Revised Estimates (RE) were fixed at Rs. 19.45 lakh crore. The provisional Direct Tax collections (net of the refunds) have exceeded the BE by 7.40% and RE by 0.67%,” the statement said.

Income tax collections continued to be higher than corporate tax collections. Gross corporate tax collection (provisional) in FY24 was Rs 11.32 lakh crore, a growth of 13.06 per cent over Rs 10 lakh crore collected in the preceding year, while the net corporate tax collection stood at Rs 9.11 lakh crore, up 10.26 per cent from Rs 8.26 lakh crore in the previous financial year.