He said that the tax collection under company tax and personal income tax is expected to increase due to several reasons like easing of compliance process for taxpayers and improving the efficiency of tax officers in processing of data.
Mohapatra told PTI-language, “The direct tax collection till February 1 is Rs 10.38 lakh crore. This is only Rs 70,000 crore less than the budgeted estimate. At present, this figure is better than last year’s total collection.
He said that the direct tax collection has never crossed Rs 11.18 lakh crore so far.
The CBDT chief said, “This year we are going to cross Rs 12 lakh crore mark… Our target is Rs 12.50 lakh crore (Revised Estimate).” And we are confident of not only achieving this goal but possibly exceeding it.”
He said that it is still two months before the end of the current financial year. In this case, the target is being killed in the range.
In the financial year 2021-22, out of the total Rs 12.50 lakh crore, Rs 6.35 lakh crore is expected to come in the company tax category while Rs 6.15 lakh crore is expected to come in the personal income tax segment.
Mohapatra said that this time the tax department is in a better position. The reason for this is the various measures that have been taken in the last few years to streamline the direct tax collection system for both the taxpayers and the tax authorities.
“We were not in the situation we are in for a long time,” he said. This is because we have made tax compliance easier for the taxpayers. At the same time, we have confidence in the data processing capability of the Income Tax Department.
Apart from this, coming together of business, sharing of data among various agencies including Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), markets regulator SEBI has also helped us, the CBDT chief said. This helped in collecting the data. We are taking advantage of all other agencies.
“Tax officials have received electronic data in different categories. So they don’t have to personally track the tax evaders. Along with this, voluntary compliance process has also been brought for the taxpayers.
According to Mohapatra, the total direct tax collection was Rs 11.18 lakh crore in 2018-19, Rs 10.28 lakh crore in 2019-20 and Rs 9.24 lakh crore in 2020-21.