Direct tax kitty may fall short of target

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal" style="" text-align:="" justify="">NEW DELHI: The government may have unveiled an ambitious forecast in the current Budget for the financial year 2005-06''s direct tax collection, but it seems to have gone wrong in calculating its earnings for the financial year ending March 2005.<br /><br />According to the finance ministry sources, though the government hopes to mop up a whopping Rs 176,000 crore from corporate tax and personal income tax during fiscal 2005-06, it seems to be struggling to meet its current target of Rs 133,929 crore.<br /><br />According to sources in the ministry, till March 15, 2005 the net collection figure shows a mop-up of Rs 102,863 crore. With just 16 days left, the ministry is still short of its target by about 24 per cent.<br /><br />Ministry sources said that despite the target being scaled down from the Rs 137,000-crore mark, the situation seems a bit difficult. The government had expected to reap about Rs 83,000 crore from the corporates. But till March 15, it could collect only about Rs 64,000 crore. Sources pointed out that with reports of lower-than-expected revenues from the banking sector and the oil PSUs — which contribute a large portion of the corporate tax — the target seems a bit difficult.<br /><br />In the personal tax segment, the ministry till March 15 collected about Rs 39,000 crore which is about 76 per cent of the collection estimate. The target set is Rs 50,529 crore.<br /><br />However sources in the ministry are optimistic that the shortfall is not unachievable. <br /><br />A senior official said that the TDS (tax deduction at source) component keeps pouring in on a regular basis. "Beside this, government has its alternate sources, as well," said an official. <br /><br />"Even recoveries from long-pending arrears made in the last 16 days of the fiscal are sometimes enough to meet the target," he said. adding "in case of a shortfall, we just might miss the target marginally."</div> </div>