File ITR at earliest as govt not contemplating extension of July 31 deadline: Revenue secretary

Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra has asked income tax payers to file their return at the earliest as the finance ministry is not contemplating extension of the July 31 deadline.

"We expect that the filing would be higher than the last year...we are hopeful that it should be more than the last year," he said in an interview to PTI. About 5.83 crore income tax returns were filed as on July 31 last year, the last day for filing returns for assessment year 2022-23.

Also Read | No income tax till Rs 7.27 lakh, FM Nirmala Sitharaman clarifies

"We would like to thank income tax return filers as ITR filing has been at a much faster pace than last year and we would advise them not to wait to the last moment and also not to hope for any extensions.

"So, I would advise them to file their tax return at the earliest because the deadline of July 31 is approaching fast," he said.

With regard to the tax mobilisation target, Malhotra said, it is more or less in line with the target growth rate, which is 10.5 per cent. The growth rate as far as Goods and Services Tax (GST) is concerned, it is 12 per cent so far, he said.

However, the growth rate is lower than 12 per cent on the excise duties front due to rate reduction.

"It is rather negative as of now. Hopefully going forward, once the impact of the decrease in the tax rates is over, we will see some increase in collection of excise duties. So, overall we feel it's still early days...we feel that we should be able to achieve the target," he said.

As per the Budget 2023-24, the government expects gross tax receipts of Rs 33.61 lakh crore in the current fiscal. Of this, the government aims to mobilise Rs 18.23 lakh crore, 10.5 per cent higher than collected from corporate and individual income tax, as per the Budget papers.

Collections from customs duty are expected to rise by 11 per cent to Rs 2.33 lakh crore from Rs 2.10 lakh crore in the revised estimates for FY23. GST collections are projected to grow by 12 per cent in the next fiscal to Rs 9.56 lakh crore.

Taking both direct and indirect taxes, the gross tax collection is expected to grow by 10.45 per cent to Rs 33.61 lakh crore in 2023-24 as compared to Rs 30.43 lakh crore mobilised in the last financial year.