Demonetisation might have triggered a sullen state of economy in its early days of implementation, but things are only getting better by the day. As the financial year ended on March 31, the government received a considerably higher number of income tax returns.
The coupled effect of GST and demonetization engendered more individuals to file tax returns. Demonetisation was implemented to help the government to unearth black and illegal money, while GST was implemented to streamline Indian financial economy.
More Tax-payers
The income tax returns – FY18 has exceeded the direct tax collections budgetary target. What’s surprising is that taxpayers for Assessment Year 2017 (AY17) have increased by a crore new income tax payers, as compared to the Assessment Year 2016 (AY16).
The count of taxpayers has now reached to 6.84 crores this year, which is up 26 percent from 5.43 crore in the previous year. Talking about the new taxpayers, the count has shot up by 99.49 lakh in FY18 as against 85.52 lakh in FY17.
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Here’s what CBDT said
CBDT said that the increase in total income tax returns is owing to consistent efforts by the income tax department coupled with constant monitoring of tax defaulters and tax-evaders.
The net direct tax collections are now at Rs 9.95 lakh crore, 17.1 percent more than the net collections for 2016-17, provisional numbers released by CBDT said. The net corporate income tax collection rose 17.1 percent and 18.9 percent for personal income tax, including STT.
GST: Real Revenues against Targets
“Despite a lot of uncertainty in both in revenue terms in FY18, the department has managed to achieve both direct and indirect tax targets FY18,” Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said.
The GST mop up for February stands at Rs 89, 264 crores, while GST refunds are ascertained to the tune of Rs 17, 616 crores, which have been given out so far, Secretary Adhia added.
Demonetisation: Indian Economy restored to Normalcy
The process of remonetisation is now complete and the currency has been pumped into the Indian economy, thereby restoring the economy to normalcy.
The latest RBI data released on Friday shows that the currency in circulation stood at Rs 18.27 lakh crore as on March, 23 as against Rs 13.35 lakh crore a year before. Prior to demonetisation, currency in circulation stood at Rs 17.97 lakh crore, 86.4 percent of which comprised currency in denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.
