According to government data released on Friday, Indians have deposited 44 per cent higher advance personal income tax in the first quarter of 2018-19 (April-June) than they did in the same period last year. In the corporate tax front too, companies have paid 17 per cent higher advance tax this quarter than last year.
What has cheered the government is the over 40 per cent growth for the second year in a row on the personal tax front, while there are signs that the corporate sector is performing better with the growth rate more than doubling from 8 per cent in June 2017, despite the weak show put up by banks.
Increase in collection of personal income tax indicates more people are in the tax net than earlier. Finance minister Arun Jaitley seconded this view in a blog post published on Friday. “Increase in the amount of collections in category of personal income tax is also due to more people coming within the tax net,” he wrote. On the other hand, increase in corporate tax payment means India Inc is seeing increase in sales and expects profits to improve in the days to come.
