India’s net direct tax collection rises 22% to ₹6.93 lakh cr

India's net direct tax collection increased by 22.48% to ₹6.93 lakh crore between April 1 and August 11 of FY25, up from ₹5.65 lakh crore during the same period last year, according to data released by the Income Tax (I-T) Department on Monday.

Personal income tax (PIT) showed stronger growth than corporate tax, with net PIT reaching ₹4.47 lakh crore compared to ₹3.44 lakh crore in the same period last year. Meanwhile, net corporate tax was ₹2.22 lakh crore as of August 2024, up from ₹2.10 lakh crore a year ago—a 5.7% increase.

Gross tax collection before refunds was ₹8.13 lakh crore, reflecting a 23.99% increase over the previous fiscal year’s collection of ₹6.55 lakh crore. Direct taxes, which include gross PIT of ₹4.82 lakh crore and gross corporate tax of ₹3.08 lakh crore and a contribution from the securities transaction tax (part of PIT), which surged to ₹21,599 crore as on August 2024, up from ₹10,234 crore in the previous year.

The government issued direct tax refunds totaling ₹1.20 lakh crore as of August 11, marking a 33.49% increase from the ₹90,028 crore issued during the same period in FY24.

For FY25, the government aims to collect a gross tax revenue of ₹38.40 lakh crore, with targets of ₹22.07 lakh crore from direct taxes and ₹16.33 lakh crore from indirect taxes. In FY24, net direct tax collection was ₹19.58 lakh crore, a 17.70% increase from the previous year, exceeding estimates by ₹13,000 crore. In FY23, the collection was ₹16.64 lakh crore, up from ₹14.08 lakh crore in FY22.

In April, it was reported that in FY 2023-24, India's net direct tax collections grew by 17.7%, reaching ₹19.58 lakh crore, up from ₹16.64 lakh crore in the preceding financial year, FY 2022-23.

"The BE (Budget Estimates) for direct tax revenue in the Union Budget for 2023-24 were set at ₹18.23 lakh crore, which were revised to ₹19.45 lakh crore RE (Revised Estimates). The provisional direct tax collections [net of the refunds] have exceeded the BE by 7.40% and RE by 0.67%," the finance ministry says.