Hyderabad: Economic slowdown hits Income Tax collections

Hyderabad: The economic slowdown continues to impact Income Tax collections across the country with many states faring poorly. As per the latest figures, the all-India collections made by Income Tax department (from April 1 up to Nov. 23) for financial year 2019-2020 stand at a little over Rs 5.44 lakh crore, registering an all-India growth of 0.6%. The IT department itself describes it as ‘far from satisfactory.’  

Central Board of Direct Taxes had set an all-India budgetary target of Rs 13.8 lakh cr for the I-T department for 2019-20. At the rate collections are going on, tax personnel are quite worried whether they would be able to achieve the target set for them. As per the new figures, the total corporate tax collections stood at over Rs 2.83 lakh cr, while the total Income Tax collections have been Rs 2.53 lakh cr.

The net collections for the same period (April 1 to November 23) in the last financial year stood at close to Rs 5.41 lakh cr. Leading the tax collections was Mumbai, the financial capital of India, where an intense political battle is underway. The total net collection of the Mumbai IT region was over Rs 1.63 lakh cr compared to Rs 1.56 lakh cr the previous year, recording a growth of 4.4%. The total corporate tax collected was Rs 89,731 cr and Income Tax was Rs 66,654 cr.

Next in the list is Delhi IT region, which fared poorly with total collection of Rs 80,864 cr as against Rs 89,650 cr the previous year. The growth dipped to minus 9.8%. The corporate tax was Rs 48,134 cr while IT was Rs 32,757 cr.

Coming to south Indian states, Bengaluru too fared poorly with total collection of Rs 58,842 cr while the figure the previous year was Rs 60,782 cr. The growth rate here too went negative to minus 3.2%. The corporate tax collected was Rs 25,876 cr and IT Rs 32,569 cr. The Chennai IT region recorded total collections to the tune of Rs 39,382 cr while the previous year, the figure was Rs 37,423 cr; registering a growth of 5.2%. The Hyderabad IT region, which comprises both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, saw a growth rate of 5.2% after the total collection stood at Rs 30,657 cr as against Rs 29,140 cr the previous year. The corporate tax collected was Rs 14,736 cr and IT was Rs 15,720 cr.

The Income Tax regions, which saw a dip in their collections and fared poorly, as per the latest figures, are Delhi (-9.8% growth rate), Bengaluru (-3.2 %), Jaipur (-17.4%), Lucknow (-4.5%), Kanpur (-3.4 %), and Guwahati (-20.3%). “Besides economic slowdown, soft approach of the I-T department towards corporates since July 31 (when Cafe Coffee Day founder V.G. Siddhartha committed suicide due to alleged ‘tax terrorism’ appears to have impacted tax collections. However, we have stepped up our operations post Diwali, which improved collections,” said department officials. They hinted at the possibility of more raids and searches in the days to come.  “We have a  budgetary target of Rs 13.8 lakh cr, which we have to achieve before March 31, 2020,” they said.