Direct tax collection up 20%: Pranab Mukherjee

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said that direct taxes collections have registered a growth of 20 percent during the current year so far and have reached nearly Rs 3,35,000 crores.

He said that this sustained growth has been possible due to rationalisation of tax structure, improvement in tax administration and persistent efforts of the employees of Income Tax department.

Mukherjee was speaking after releasing commemorative coins in denomination of Rs 150 and Rs 5 to mark the completion of year-long celebrations of 150 years of Income Tax in India.

The reverse faces of the coins bear the portrait of Chanakya and a lotus with a honeybee as a relic to the Maurya Emperor Chandragupta adviser?s famous lines, ?…Ideally, governments should collect taxes like a honeybee, which sucks just the right amount of honey from the flower so that both can survive.?

Just below the portrait of Chanakya, the word ?Chanakya? is written in Hindi and English.

The left and right peripheries of the coins are flanked with words ?Income Tax – 150 years of Building India? in both Hindi and English.

The one hundred and fifty rupees coin is not only unique for its denomination but also its size and metal composition; the 44 millimetres circular coin is made of 50 percent silver, said a government news release.