Income tax returns filed up 25%, advance personal income tax by 42%

New Delhi, August 7 (IANS): Claiming a demonetisation effect, the government on Monday said the income tax returns filed in the current fiscal has seen a 25 per cent increase and the advance individual income tax collections have gone up by 42 per cent. As many as 2.83 crore income tax returns were filed till August 5 this year as compared to 2.27 crore returns filed in 2016-17 assessment year.
The government had extended the deadline to file income tax returns (ITR) to August 5. “As a result of demonetisation and Operation Clean Money, there is a substantial increase in the number of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filed,” the Finance Ministry said here in a statement. The percentage growth in the number of returns filed in 2016-17 was 9.9 per cent.
The growth in returns filed by individuals this year is 25.3 per cent at 2.79 crore as against 2.23 crore in the corresponding period of 2016-2017. “This clearly shows that substantial number of new tax payers have been brought into the tax net subsequent to demonetisation,” the statement said.
“The effect of demonetisation is also clearly visible in the growth in direct tax collections. Advance tax collections of personal income tax on August 5 showed a growth of about 41.79 per cent over the corresponding period in 2016-2017,” it said. Personal income tax under Self Assessment Tax (SAT) grew at 34.25 per cent over the corresponding period in 2016-2017.