Anticipating an adverse impact in view of a bad monsoon, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday set an ambitious direct tax collection target for the current fiscal, revising it upward to Rs 4 lakh crore, up Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) over the Budget estimates.
"Given the likely impact on government finances due to an unanticipated drought, I will like to suggest a further upward revision in the direct tax collection target to Rs 4,00,000 crore," Mukherjee said here at the annual Income Tax Chief Commissioners and Director General conference.
The budget target for direct tax collection for the current fiscal has currently been pegged at Rs 3.7 lakh crore. The direct tax collections last year in wake of the economic slowdown was at about Rs 3.4 lakh crore.
This year, during the first four months of the fiscal, the April-July period, the direct tax kitty rose moderately by about 3.2 per cent to Rs 73,990 crore (Rs 739.90 billion) as compared to last fiscal.
Commenting on the revised target, Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairman SSN Moorthy said, "This is an aspiration. We will try to achieve it (revised target). We will work towards that."
