New Delhi, April 8. India’s actual tax revenues in the financial year 2021-22 exceeded the budget estimates by a whopping Rs 5 lakh crore, said revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj here today. It is widely believed that the huge surge in tax revenues signify a robust recovery in the Indian economy after the Covid pandemic.
Against the union budget estimates of ₹22.17 lakh crore, the revenue collection as per the pre-actual figures is ₹27.07 lakh crore, almost ₹5 lakh crore above the budget estimates. This is a growth of 34% over last years revenue collection of ₹ 20.27 lakh crore. The spike in the tax revenues has been led by 49% rise in direct taxes and supported by 20% growth in indirect taxes.
This revenue growth has been propelled by rapid economic recovery after successive waves of COVID, supported by one of the largest immunization programme of the world run by the Government.
The revenue secretary said 2021-22 marks the highest tax-GDP ratio of 11.7%, with direct tax to GDP ratio at 6.1% and indirect tax to GDP ratio at 5.6%. The tax buoyancy (which is a measure of growth in tax revenues as compared to GDP growth) is at a very healthy figure of 1.9, with 2.8 for direct taxes and 1.1 for indirect taxes. The ratio of direct to indirect taxes recovered from 0.9 in 2020-21 back to 1.1 in 2021-22.
The gross corporate taxes during 2021-22 was ₹8.6 lakh crore against ₹6.5 lakh crore last year, which shows that the new simplified tax regime with low rates and no exemptions has lived up to its promise,said Mr Bajaj. During the year, Income tax department gave refunds of ₹2.24 lakh core. During last two years, the effort has been to clear backlog of refunds to infuse liquidity into the hands of businesses. During the year, 2.4 crore refunds were issued that included 2.01 crore related to the year 2021-22, for which the returns were filed till 31st March 2021, said an official press release.
On the indirect taxes, GST has seen an exemplary growth during 2021-22 despite two waves of COVID-19 pandemic. CGST revenues increased from ₹4.6 lakh crore last year to ₹5.9 lakh crore in 2021-22. The average monthly gross GST revenue in 2021-22 was ₹1.23 lakh crore as compared to ₹94,734 in 2020-21 and ₹1.01 lakh crore in 2019-20.
It is expected that the trend of recovery in the economy and tax revenues of the Government will continue to grow.
