NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s gross receipts for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022 beat budget estimates and revised estimates indicating a strong economic recovery, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said on Friday.
According to government data, gross revenue collection increased by nearly Rs 5 lakh crore to Rs 27.07 lakh crore, when compared to budget estimates. Revised estimates for FY22 were Rs 25.16 lakh crore.
Tax collected in FY22 was 34% higher than the previous year. According to the Ministry of Finance, 2021-2022 marks the highest tax-to-GDP ratio of 11.7%, with a direct tax-to-GDP ratio of 6.1% and an indirect tax-to-GDP ratio of 5.6%.
“Fiscal momentum is at a very healthy 1.9, with 2.8 for direct taxes and 1.1 for indirect taxes. The ratio of direct to indirect taxes fell to 1.1 in 2021-22 from 0.9 in 2020-21,” the secretary said during a media interaction. Gross corporate taxes in 2021-22 stood at Rs 8.6 lakh crore compared to Rs 6.5 lakh crore in the previous year.
During the year, the income tax department refunded Rs 2.24 lakh crore. “Over the past two years, the effort has been to clear the backlog of refunds to inject cash into the hands of businesses. During the year, refunds of 2.4 crores were issued, of which 2 .01 crores related to the year 2021-22, for which returns were filed till March 31, 2021,” the finance ministry official said.
Regarding indirect taxes, the GST experienced robust growth in 2021-22 despite two waves of the Covid pandemic. CGST revenue has increased from Rs 4.6 lakh crore last year to Rs 5.9 lakh crore in 2021-22. The average monthly gross income from GST in 2021-22 was Rs 1.23 lakh crore compared to Rs 94,734 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 1.01 lakh crore in 2019-20.
