K.R. Srivats

New Delhi, July 28 Higher tax deduction at source (TDS) collections coupled with the absence of abnormally high refunds has helped Delhi region record a healthy 83.27 per cent increase in net direct tax collections during April 1-July 24 this year.

Income tax mop-up for the period under review grew to Rs 12,180 crore (Rs 6,646 crore). Net direct tax collections in the region had grown a sluggish 5.99 per cent in the same period last year, partly due to high refunds such as those given to MTNL.

Delhi accounted for 16 per cent of the country’s income tax collections in 2007-08 and 6 per cent of the total taxpayer base. The Delhi region currently has a taxpayer base of 22 lakh, higher than the level of 17 lakh in 2006-07.

“It is mainly increased voluntary compliance that has led to this growth rate in the current fiscal. We have created an atmosphere for voluntary tax compliance. Going by this collection trend, I am confident that we will comfortably surpass the budget target of Rs 64,599 crore set for us during 2008-09,” Mr Vijay Bhushan, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (Delhi), said here on Monday.

Official sources said that Delhi was not the only region showing such high growth rates, noting that places like Kochi and Nagpur too showed similar growth rates. For the period under review, TDS collections in Delhi recorded 71.3 per cent increase to Rs 8,099 crore (Rs 4,729 crore). Advance tax collections for the June 15 instalment grew 30 per cent to Rs 4,415 crore.

Ms Arti Handa, Commissioner (TDS), attributed the surge in TDS collections to the workshops conducted by the tax department for spreading awareness among the public sector and Government deductors. “This year we will look at conducting workshops for the private sector too. Last year, we had addressed about 1,000 deductors to discuss TDS provisions, clarify doubts and explain the procedure for e-filing of TDS returns. This has helped in better compliance,” Ms Handa told Business Line.

Mr Bhushan said that the income tax department expects to receive about 8 lakh returns, pertaining to salaried and other categories, from the Delhi region by July 31. The department was looking to receive about 4 lakh returns from salaried taxpayers at its special camp at Pragati Maidan from July 27-31, said Ms Laxmi Prasad, Chief Commissioner, who handles salaries.

Although tax collections have been robust, Mr Bhushan admits that the picture is not all that rosy on the refund side. “We take time to issue refunds as the returns are bigger in terms of the number of pages. It takes a longer time to process,” he said, adding that the Delhi region had 53,064 pending refund cases.

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