NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said on Thursday that the tax base and revenues had increased significantly post demonetisation and there was no surge in the people who stopped filing returns.
“CBDT clarified that contrary to the report, it is a fact that demonetization had a phenomenal positive impact on the widening of tax base and direct tax collections,” the tax department said while responding to a news report.
It said 6.87 crore Income Tax Returns (ITRs) were filed during FY 2017-18 as compared to 5.48 crore ITRs filed during FY 2016-17, translating into a growth of 25%.
A statement from the department said during FY 2017-18, the number of new ITR filers has also increased to 1.07 crore as compared to 86.16 lakh new filers added during FY 2016-17.
The net direct tax collections for 2017-18 amounted to Rs. 10.03 lakh crore, which is 18% higher than the collections for 2016-17. The growth rate of 18% for 2017-18 is the highest in last seven financial years. A substantial part of this growth is attributed to the impact of demonetization, the statement said.
“CBDT also wishes to make it very clear that the information about “Stop Filers” is incorrect and the data source quoted is not from the Income Tax Department. CBDT does not have any word “Stop Filers” in its glossary and it does not maintain any MIS or database of “Stop Filers” in normal course, the statement said.
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