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A new record of over 7.28 crore income tax returns were filed by the July 31 deadline, the income tax department said on August 2.

The income tax returns (ITRs) filed for the assessment year 2024-25 compares to 6.77 crore filed last year, it added.

“Out of the total ITRs of 7.28 crore filed for AY 2024-25, 5.27 crore have been filed in the new tax regime compared to 2.01 crore ITRs filed in the Old Tax Regime,” the tax department said in a statement.

The filing of ITRs peaked on July 31, 2024 (the due date for salaried taxpayers and other non-tax audit cases), with over 69.92 lakh ITRs being filed on a single day.

The department also received 58.57 lakh ITRs from first-time filers, a fair indication of the widening of the tax base.

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| Photo Credit: V. Sudershan

India’s net direct tax collections surged by a massive 17.7% year-on-year to ₹19.58 crore in the fiscal year ended March 2024, surpassing even revised estimates by a wide margin, the tax department said on Sunday.

Net collections of income and corporate taxes, which make up for most of the direct taxes, in 2023-24 financial year exceeded the Budget estimates by ₹1.35 lakh crore (7.40%) and the revised estimates by ₹13,000 crore.

The government had raised the target for direct tax collection in FY24 (April 2023 to March 2024) to ₹19.45 lakh crore in the interim Budget presented on February 1.

With this, the gross tax collection target as per the revised estimate stood at ₹34.37 lakh crore for FY24.

While gross direct tax collections (provisional) for the FY 2023-24 rose 18.48% to ₹23.37 lakh crore, net proceeds (after accounting for refunds) surged 17.7% to ₹19.58 lakh crore, reflecting buoyancy in the economy and rise in income levels of individuals and corporates.

Refunds aggregating to ₹3.79 lakh crore have been issued in FY 2023-24, the CBDT said in a statement.

“The provisional figures of Direct Tax collections for the financial year (FY) 2023-24 show that net collections are at ₹19.58 lakh crore, compared to ₹16.64 lakh crore in the preceding financial year i.e. FY 2022-23,” it said, adding the Budget for 2023-24 fiscal had pegged the collections for the year at ₹18.23 lakh crore, which were revised to ₹19.45 lakh crore later.

“The provisional Direct Tax collections [net of the refunds] have exceeded the Budget Estimate by 7.40% and Revised Estimates by 0.67%,” it said.

The gross collection (provisional) of Direct Taxes (before adjusting for refunds) for the FY 2023-24 stood at ₹23.37 lakh crore, showing a growth of 18.48% over the gross collection of ₹19.72 lakh crore in FY 2022-23.

The gross corporate tax collection (provisional) in FY 2023-24 was up 13.06% to ₹11.32 lakh crore as compared to the gross corporate tax collection of ₹10 lakh crore of the preceding year.

The Net Corporate Tax collection (provisional) in FY 2023-24 at ₹9.11 lakh crore showed a growth of 10.26% over the net corporate tax collection of ₹8.26 lakh crore of the preceding year.

The Gross Personal Income Tax collection including Securities Transaction Tax (provisional) in FY 2023-24 at ₹12.01 lakh crore was up 24.26% over previous year’s collection of ₹9.67 lakh crore.

The Net Personal Income Tax collection including STT (provisional) in FY 2023-24 at ₹10.44 lakh crore showed a growth of 25.23% over preceding fiscal year’s figure of ₹8.33 lakh crore.

Refunds of ₹3.79 lakh crore have been issued in the FY 2023-24 showing an increase of 22.74% over the refunds of ₹3.09 lakh crore issued in FY 2022-23, the statement added.

Even the indirect tax collection for FY24 has exceeded the revised estimates (RE) of ₹14.84 lakh crore by “a handsome margin”, helped by a record GST mop-up, a top government official said.

CBIC chairman Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, in a letter to field officials, recently said, “I am happy to inform that the indirect tax collections for the Financial Year 2023-24, including Customs and Union Excise Duty have exceeded the Revised Estimates by a handsome margin.”