What does the increase signify?

NEW DELHI: According to government data released on Friday, Indians have deposited 44 per cent higher advance personal income tax in the first quarter of 2018-19 (April-June) than they did in the same period last year.In the corporate tax front too, companies have paid 17 per cent higher advance tax this quarter than last year.Read full story: Individual advance tax grows by 44% in JuneWhat has cheered the government is the over 40 per cent growth for the second year in a row on the personal tax front, while there are signs that the corporate sector is performing better with the growth rate more than doubling from 8 per cent in June 2017, despite the weak show put up by banks.Increase in collection of personal income tax indicates more people are in the tax net than earlier. Finance minister Arun Jaitley seconded this view in a blog post published on Friday. "Increase in the amount of collections in category of personal income tax is also due to more people coming within the tax net," he wrote.On the other hand, increase in corporate tax payment means India Inc is seeing increase in sales and expects profits to improve in the days to come.It also means that Indians are spending more and consuming more goods and services than earlier.The government however has to give tax refunds to those who have paid excess tax in the previous years which will moderate the hike in advance tax payment to some extent.“After repayment of refunds due to some excess tax paid in earlier years, which are usually paid back in the first quarter, the net amount would be somewhat lesser. But if the same trend continues in the next three quarters, one expects a significant increase in the direct tax collection this year,” Jaitley further wrote in the blog.The government has budgeted for a 14 per cent increase in direct tax collections, estimated at Rs 11.5 lakh crore, with personal income tax budgeted to rise 20 per cent — twice the estimated rate of growth for corporation tax.