Business News

Direct tax collections in the first 11 months (April-February) of the current financial year rose 7.52 per cent to Rs 2,78,373 crore, compared with Rs 2,58,902 crore in the corresponding period of 2008-09. The revenue department will have to collect Rs 91,627 crore in March to meet its revised Budget target of Rs 3.87 lakh crore for 2009-10. Corporate tax collections grew by 10.89 per cent to Rs 1,80,318 crore, against Rs 1,62,617 crore in the same period of the previous financial year. Receipts from personal income tax ?including Securities Transaction Tax (STT), residual Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) and Banking Cash Transaction Tax (BCTT) ? grew 1.84 per cent to Rs 97,692 crore, against Rs 95,930 crore in the year-ago period. Direct tax collections in February grew 27.54 per cent to Rs 14,675 crore, compared with Rs 11,506 crore in the same month last year. In January, however, the tax collections had fallen 19.84 per cent. While corporate tax receipts grew 16.87 per cent in February, personal income tax collections increased 37.58 per cent. ?The final instalment of advance tax for both corporate and non-corporate taxpayers is due by March 15. Corporate taxpayers are required to pay 25 per cent and non-corporate taxpayers 40 per cent of their advance taxes in March,? the finance ministry said in a statement today. Between April 2009 and this February, STT collections increased by 17.65 per cent to Rs 5,975 crore, against Rs 5,079 crore in the same period last year. Wealth tax revenue grew by 31.72 per cent to Rs 431 crore, against Rs 327 crore in the corresponding period in 2008-09. Meanwhile, the government may further widen the tax slabs when it implements the direct taxes code in 2011-12. In the Budget 2010-11, it has already altered the slabs. ?A further widening (of tax slabs) is possible. But this will happen when the revised (draft direct taxes code) paper comes,? Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by industry body CII. The finance ministry will come out with a revised draft in the first quarter of 2010-11 so that a bill to this effect can be tabled in the Monsoon session of Parliament.