Direct Taxes - CAG's Findings
The CAG in its latest report to Parliament on Direct Taxes notes that:-
++ Direct tax collections increased from Rs. 1,65,216 crore in 2005- 06 to Rs. 3,78,063 crore in 2009-10 at an average annual rate of growth of 32.2 per cent.
++ In 2009-10, for every unit growth in GDP, direct taxes grew by 0.8 per cent only. Thus, the acceleration in tax collection was less sharper than that of GDP in 2009-10. The buoyancy improved as compared to 2008-09 when it was 0.5 per cent.
++ The total number of direct tax assessees increased by 14.4 percent in 2009-10 to 340.9 lakh as compared to 297.91akh taxpayers in 2005-06. The growth path has been fluctuating as it registered a decline of 3 per cent in 2008-09, with the decline being sharper for corporate assessees. However, in 2009-10 there has been a marginal increase of 4 per cent.
++ 82.8 per cent of the collections came in by way of voluntary compliance in 2009-10.
++ The pendency of scrutiny assessment cases increased from 45.7 per cent in 2005-06 to 50.7 per cent in 2009-10.
++ Cost of collection rose to 0.73 per cent in 2009-10 from 0.55 per cent in 2007-08.
++ Internal Audit completed 69.8 per cent of the targeted audits. Only 12.6 per cent of major findings raised by Internal Audit were acted upon by the assessing officers in 2009-10. Departmental response to Internal Audit was clearly inadequate.