The income tax e-returns filed for the April-February period has marked up almost 30% more when the comparative study was done with the analogous span of time in FY18 which attested 6.7 crore income tax e-return filing.
The first 11 months of the current fiscal year spotted about 6.4 crore taxpayer who filed returns and this served anticipation of 7.6 returns to be filled by the end of the FY to the government. For the current fiscal, the I-T department lofted the non-filers management system to capture individuals who had engaged in high-value financial transactions but found lacking when it came to the filing of I-T returns.
The introduction of this system proved beneficial and the initial 15 days after its launch brought the result on the surface. IT department discovered about 33,000 people filed the return within two weeks & e-filing website hosted around 3 lakh people who visit there to inspect if they have received any notices from the department
When we talk about the previous Fiscal years, mutations are fairly visible as March itself has notarized 0.8 crores e-return filing in FY16, 1.1 crores in FY17 and 1.85 crores in FY18 while the FY14 attested only 3.8 crore e-returns filing.
The IT return filing outpoured after when the Income Tax Department started sending email reminder/notices for those who have not filed an income tax return (ITR).
During the span of April-February of the last two fiscals, the growth was lower at 27%, 20% and 17% in FY 16, FY 17 and FY 18, respectively.
The government acclaimed demonetization as one of the major reasons behind the amplification of I-T returns.
Some reports concluded the increase in e-return filing without many extensions in tax base over the last four year between the assessment year (AY) 2013-14 to AY 2017-18:
- Increase in IT return filing by all categories tax payer- the number of e-returns filed between assessment year (AY) 2013-14 to AY2017-18 magnified by an average 25% per year
- Not much increase in the tax base -the effective taxpayer base expanded by an average of 9% only, when only two of these years recorded double-digit growth.
According to the revised estimate, the government target for this Fy is set at 12 lakh crore which is 20% higher than the last fiscal but not much amplification ineffective taxpayer base is leading a contrast role in government’s target for this fiscal.
As reported earlier, if we follow the historical mop-up trend the following conclusions may take place:
- 65% of the annual direct taxes accumulation in the first nine months of a fiscal and the balance in the fourth quarter.
- The shortfall of INR 52,000 crores in personal income tax collections may be deposed in Q4 FY19 with the total tax collection INR 1,85,150 crore.
- The corporation tax (CIT) may register a shortfall of Rs 13,000 crore against the RE.
According to a senior I-T official, the bullseye for the tax collection till the third week of February was set at Rs. 12 lakh crore but lamentably the target could not duly meet and supported only Rs. 8 lakh crore.
This unexpected shortfall in Income tax collection can bring tension to the department and then the measures to recover the same may create deacceleration in the Tax refund process.
Read Also: Income Tax Return Filing Due Dates for Current Financial Year
The Income Tax department registered a ‘total net collection’ of Rs 7,79,459.7 crore — roughly, Rs 7.79 lakh crore as on February 20th after agglomerating the data from different regions.
Mumbai witnessed the largest I-T collection, which hiked by 7.4% from Rs 2.22 lakh crore to Rs 2.39 lakh crore. while Delhi stands second in the I-T collection which increased by 27% from Rs 94,754.3 crore in the previous year to Rs 1.2 lakh crore this year.
