Time series of IT released by CBDT

Time series data of Direct Tax Collections by GOI is being released by IT Dept/CBDT now and then.There is no regularity in release of data and also in data details.Previous Time series data was released upto the year FY18-19 in May/ of 2020.Now this update has been released after 3 years gap.(Time series data)

The time series data contain whole host of details and a student interested in analysing our country's Direct Tax collection , can Data mine large amount of useful information.

The most important datapoint is Direct Tax GDP ratio (Chapter 1.4) which has increased to 2.52% in FY21-22. Next to that is Chapter 1.5 which gives Pre-Assessment and Post-Assessment Collections.

 Two observations based on the latest Time Series Chapter 1.5 details .1)it strengthens the argument that more than 89% of Direct Tax collections are thro Advance tax,TDS and Self assessment Tax.This percentage is even without considering,Equalization levy, Central TDS, Dividend Tax etc.which are also pre assessment collections.This leads to the obvious question as to what is the necessity for the Assessment proceedings?

IMHO, atleast Salary earners,who are assessees,  if they have a Form16 issued by the employer to back up should not be subject to separate Assessment proceedings.Even for others, Assessment can be dropped on a case by case basis if they show atleast 15% YOY increase in their Taxable income and Tax payments.

CBDT can call this scheme as "File & Forget " Assessment to encourage this.Data intelligence of IT dept should be deployed to prevent misuse of this scheme.Trusting the Assessees will instill confidence in them and will lead to better compliance over the long term.

 2)chapters on Number of IT return filed,No.of persons filing IT return, No.of Tax payers , have been left out.These details were available in the earlier Time series data Why they have been left out now?Nobody knows.