Government lost over Rs.100,000 crore last fiscal on tax sops

New Delhi, December 9 2014

The national exchequer’s loss owing to incentives and tax exemptions to companies rose by over 10 percent to Rs.100,300 crore in 2013-14 compared to that of the previous fiscal.

The revenue forgone due to such incentives was at Rs.92,636 crore in 2012-13, Rs.81,214 crore in 2011-12 and Rs.83,328 crore in 2010-11, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Tuesday in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

“Such tax incentives are mainly in the form of profit-linked deductions, investment-linked deductions, depreciation and additional depreciation and weighted deduction,” Jaitley said.

“In so far as direct taxes are concerned, tax incentives have been provided to promote creation of infrastructure facilities, balanced regional development, exports, generation of employment, rural development, scientific research and development,” he added.

The government plans to collect Rs.736,000 crore from direct taxes in the current fiscal, up from over Rs.636,000 crore collected last year.

The indirect tax collection target for the fiscal is over Rs 624,000 crore, up 20.28 percent over the collections last year.