I-T department collects Rs 6.96 lakh crore revenue during 2014-15

New Delhi: Government collected over Rs 6,96,200 crore revenue under the direct taxes kitty in the just concluded financial year 2014-15, about 14 per cent short of target.

Officials said the I-T Department which collects a variety of taxes like Income Tax and Corporate Tax collected approximately Rs 6,96,200 crore in the fiscal ending March 31, 2015.

The achieved collections are about Rs 9,000 crore or 14 per cent short of the projected target of Rs 7,05,000 crore. The collections are, however, 19 per cent more than the last fiscal. In FY14, the mop-up was Rs 5,83,000 crore.

The government had revised the direct tax collection target to Rs 7,05,000 crore for the fiscal 2014-15 against the initial projection of Rs 7,36,000 crore in view of the sluggish economic growth.

"The sluggish growth, especially in service sectors and the Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) category took a toll on the direct taxes collection. The department, in spite of these challenges, achieved the best it could," they said.

The tax department, the officials said, could register a growth of only 8 per cent in the most crucial TDS category as compared to 18 per cent under the same category during the previous fiscal.

"The department tried to get as much as TDS from various sectors as possible. But a sluggish manufacturing and building sector has made it impossible for the I-T department to get any better revenue on this front," the officials said.

The department, an earlier data in this regard had said, registered a low growth under the Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) category as it recorded only 18.5 per cent collections on this front as compared to the 24.5 per cent growth in the corresponding period last year.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex policy making body of the I-T department, was very active in the first three months of this year to garner as much revenue as possible but a sluggish growth in certain sectors put a hurdle in its efforts, they said.

"A non-adversarial tax compliance regime was the motto of the department and certain factors beyond the taxman's control attributed to the overall slump in revenue collection," they said.