Advance tax collections in India, paid by companies and certain individuals, have gone up 12. 8% to over £52 billion, according to the latest official numbers. Close to £40 billion is on account of payments towards corporation tax, with the remaining amount of over £12 billion on account of personal income tax. While advance tax is to be paid in four instalments, up to December 15 three instalments had to be paid with the final tranche due in the middle of March.
Advance tax is seen as a good barometer of direct tax collections, which seem to be holding strong so far. The government has budgeted for a 13. 6% increase in gross direct tax collections during the current financial year to £142 billion.
The numbers released by the finance ministry estimated that during the fiscal year up to December 17 gross direct tax collections increased 26. 9% to over £136 billion, compared to £108 billion during the corresponding period last year. Within this, the corporation tax mop-up was estimated at £72.50 billion, with personal income tax adding up to nearly £64 billion.
According to the data released by the finance ministry, advance tax accounted for over 38% of the gross collections, while the share of TDS was just a little under 50%.
“There has been a remarkable increase in the speed of processing of income tax returns filed during the current fiscal, with almost 96. 5% of the duly verified income tax returns (ITRs) having been processed till December 17, 2022.