Advance tax collection for H1 swells 22.6% to Rs 4.36 lakh crore

New Delhi: The government’s advance tax collections rose 22.61% to ₹4.36 lakh crore in the first half of the current financial year (April- September 15), signalling a strong corporate performance and robust economy, official data released on Wednesday showed.

This includes advance corporate tax of ₹3,31 lakh crore and advance personal tax of ₹1,04 lakh crore. The advanced tax collections in the corresponding period last year stood at ₹3.55 lakh crore.

The total advance tax collections for the first quarter (April 1 to June 15) was ₹1.48 lakh crore.

On the back of strong advance tax numbers, net direct tax collections rose 16.12% to ₹9.95 lakh crore in the period under review. This includes corporate tax of ₹4.52 lakh crore and personal income tax of ₹5.15 lakh crore and security transaction tax of ₹26,154 crore.

The gross direct tax collection, without adjusting for refunds, was ₹12.01 lakh crore, up 21.48%. The government issued refunds worth ₹2.05 lakh crore, 56.5% higher than refunds issued in the same period last year.

“Personal income tax continues to show strong growth and is pulling ahead of corporate income tax – a continuing trend over the last two years,” Rohinton Sidhwa, partner, Deloitte India, said, adding that advance tax also shows strong growth over the previous year indicating the inherent strength and growth of the economy.

The government collected ₹19.58 lakh crore as net direct tax in 2023-24, 17.1% more than in the previous fiscal, exceeding the revised estimates by ₹13,000 crore.

The centre has budgeted ₹22.07 lakh crore from direct tax collections in this fiscal.