Speaking to reporters at the taxpayers’ lounge set up by the income tax department at the ongoing India International Trade Fair in the capital, Gupta said receipts from direct taxes, comprising personal and corporate tax receipts, after refunds, are expected to go up by over 25% compared with Union budget estimates for this fiscal.

“For the current year, we believe we would be exceeding the Budget estimate by a sizeable margin. It could be 25–30% higher. Next year, given the buoyancy of tax collection, we would be giving a good collection to the government,” Gupta said. The Centre’s direct tax target for this fiscal is ₹14.2 trillion.

Official data had shown earlier this month that net direct tax collections up to 10 November had jumped 26% from a year ago to ₹8.71 trillion, representing 61.3% of the total budget estimate for the full fiscal. Data released last Friday had also shown that gross direct tax collections before accounting for tax refunds stood at ₹10.54 trillion so far this year, showing an improvement of 30.6% over the gross collections made in the same period a year ago.

Gupta also said that the tax department is revamping the tax return forms. “We have launched the common return form for stakeholder consultation and expect views on it by 15 December. Once we get it, we will be working more on it. This year we did a lot of taxpayer service in terms of (quick) return processing and refund issuance. That will continue,” Gupta said.

Gupta said that with online gaming coming into the limelight, the tax department is working to see how a better audit trail can be established for money spent and earned from such online activities, news agency PTI reported.

“Online gaming and betting is a new kid on the block, and we will take a view at the stage of budget preparation and see how evasion can be controlled and, at the same time, make it easier for taxpayers to maintain accounts and pay taxes,” the PTI report said citing Gupta.

The department has been expanding areas where tax deducted at source (TDS) is applicable, he said.