23% jump in India Inc tax payment belies slowdown

The Centre's gross corporate tax revenues have registered a 23 per cent jump in the current fiscal so far, bolstered mainly by higher TDS collections from interest, royalties and other such payments made by companies.

The period from April 1 to June 18 saw corporate tax collections of Rs 67,100 crore. This represents a 23 per cent increase over the same period of 2010-11, which, in turn, recorded only an 11 per cent growth.

The latest data from the Revenue Department provide further evidence that India Inc is yet to experience a pronounced slowdown or a shrinkage of margins, as is being voiced in several quarters.

With the overall corporate tax collections up, the TDS route alone has shown a 32 per cent year-on-year growth from Rs 17,800 crore to Rs 23,500 crore. The same period last year witnessed a decline of about 8 per cent, which is a pointer to increased inter-corporate activity during the current fiscal, official sources said.

Corporate TDS refers to the Tax Deducted at Source by companies for transactions such as payment of interest, royalty and overseas remittances.

India Inc's advance tax payout for the June 15 instalment saw a healthy 19 per cent rise at Rs 31,262 crore (Rs 26,293 crore).

On a cumulative basis, India Inc's advance tax and corporate TDS payout grew 23 per cent during April-June 18, signalling expectations of a strong financial performance for the entire fiscal.

Advance tax payments are generally made after factoring in TDS (net of TDS) and this 19 per cent increase, therefore, augurs well for direct tax collections for the current fiscal, the sources added. The Centre has targeted a 22 per cent increase in corporate tax collections for the current fiscal at Rs 3.6 lakh crore.

But it is not only the corporate tax front in which revenue collections have been buoyant, the same holds true even for personal income-tax. For the April 1-June 18 period this year, personal income tax collections grew 24.5 per cent to Rs 34,500 crore (Rs 27,700 crore). This growth rate of 24.5 per cent is much higher than the overall growth of 14 per cent targeted for personal income-tax this year.

On an overall basis, the Centre's gross direct tax collections during April 1-June 18 grew by 23.4 per cent to touch Rs 1,01,600 crore. In net terms, however, the growth may not be as much, considering that refunds have gone up by a whopping a 190 per cent from Rs 14,032 crore to Rs 40,797 crore.

The Centre aims to collect direct tax revenues of Rs 5.3 lakh crore in 2011-12, which is about 19 per cent higher than the Rs 4.45 lakh crore collected in 2010-11. Given the collection trend in the first quarter, even if one were to assume that the total refund payouts for the entire fiscal were to cross the Rs 1 lakh crore mark, the Centre would comfortably meet its direct tax collection target this year, the sources claimed.