Direct taxes typically account for about 80 per cent of the government’s projections for annual revenue, and the shortfall may leave the government needing to boost borrowing to meet expenditure commitments. After collecting taxes from companies in advance for the first three quarters, officials typically garner about 30-35 per cent of annual direct taxes in the final three months, data from the past three years shows. But eight senior tax officials interviewed by Reuters said despite their best efforts direct tax collections this financial year were likely to fall below the 11.5 trillion collected in 2018-19. This will be the first time that we’ll see a fall in direct tax collection ever,” said a tax official in New Delhi. He estimates that direct tax collections for this year could end up roughly 10 per cent below fiscal 2019.

Source: Indian Express January 24, 2020 10:48 UTC