New Delhi, March 8 - In line with the recent upward trend, India's direct tax collections for 11 months of the ongoing fiscal at a net of Rs 7.44 lakh crore grew at 19.5% over the corresponding period of 2016-17, according to figures released by the Finance Ministry on March 8.
The net direct tax collections up to February represent 74.3% of the revised estimates of direct taxes for the financial year 2017-18 at Rs 10.05 lakh crore, the ministry said.
"Gross collections (before adjusting for refunds) have increased by 14.5% to Rs 8.83 lakh crore during April 2017 to February 2018," a statement said.
"Refunds amounting to Rs 1.39 lakh crore have been issued during April 2017 to February 2018."
Providing a break-up of the composition, the ministry said the growth rate for net corporate tax collections during the period under consideration is 19.7%, while that for personal income tax is 18.6%.
In this connection, presenting the budget for the next fiscal last month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made a significant announcement of fiscal slippage with implications for pushing inflation, revising upwards the government's fiscal deficit target for 2017-18 to 3.5% of the GDP, or the equivalent of Rs 5.95 lakh crore.
The higher target came in place of the 3.2% -- or Rs 5.46 lakh crore -- for the current fiscal announced earlier.