India's direct tax collections jumped over 3-fold to Rs 20 lakh crore in last 10 years: Revenue Secretary

NEW DELHI: India's direct tax revenues have increased from Rs 5.59 lakh crore to Rs 20 lakh crore a year over the last 10 years while the tax-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio has increased to 6 per cent from 5.6 per cent over this period, according to Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra.

In his address on Income Tax Day, he also said that the Income Tax Department's focus on the use of technology was comparable with global practices to improve taxpayer services.

Highlighting the faster pace at which the tax department was functioning, he said that of the over 7.28 crore income tax returns for Assessment Year 2024-25 that were filed till July 31, 2024, as many as 4.98 crore ITRs (income tax returns) have already been processed, and intimations sent to taxpayers.

"Of this, 3.92 crore ITRs were processed in less than 15 days," he remarked.

He said that the Income Tax Department has succeeded in doubling the tax base and compliance has been made easier for taxpayers with the introduction of faceless regime, e-verification, seamless e-filing.

In his inaugural address, Ravi Agrawal, Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) observed that over the years the focus of the Department has been on enhancing taxpayer services and leveraging technology to ease compliances. Agrawal gave an overview of some of the achievements in the last fiscal, including a growth of 17.7 per cent achieved in net collections and an increase of 7.5 per cent in the number of ITRs filed over the previous year (till July 31, 2024).

Agarwal further mentioned that 72 per cent of the returns were filed under the New Tax Regime, underlining its widespread acceptance - first time filers at 58.57 lakh returns were a fair indication of widening of tax base.

He also highlighted achievements in the area of Advance Pricing Agreements wherein record number of 125 APAs were signed in the last fiscal and also mentioned that the 10th Income Tax Overseas Unit has been operationalised in Abu Dhabi, UAE demonstrating the commitment of the Department to extend its global reach.

The CBDT Chairman further underlined the Department’s focus on upgradation of technology citing approvals of new versions of CPC-TDS, ITBA and TAXNET projects, while underscoring the importance of review of the Income-tax Act, 1961.