At over 6.5 lakh crore, direct tax collections increase 18.2% in April-Dec 2017: Govt

The ministry said provisional numbers for direct taxes collections showed an 18.2% growth during April-December.

Direct tax collections soared 18.2% during the first nine months of current fiscal, at Rs 6.56 lakh crore, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley during an address. (Reuters File Photo)

In a statement, the ministry said provisional numbers for direct taxes collections showed an 18.2% growth during April-December.

Direct taxes are made up of income tax paid by individuals, wealth tax and corporation tax paid by companies.

“The net direct tax collections represent 67% of the total Budget Estimates of direct taxes for FY2017-18 (Rs 9.8 lakh crore),” the statement said.

Gross collections (before adjusting for refunds) have increased by 12.6% to Rs 7.68 lakh crore during April to December, 2017.

As many as Rs 1.12 lakh crore refunds have been issued in the period.

The ministry said advance tax collection was up 12.7%, at Rs 3.18 lakh crore.

While the growth in corporate income tax advance tax is 10.9%, that in personal Income Tax advance tax is 21.6%.