Net direct tax collections till February 10 at Rs 19.43 lakh crore, up 9.4% YoY

Refunds, meanwhile, stood at Rs 3.34 lakh crore between April 1, 2025 – February 10, 2026. This is lower by 18.82 percent as compared to same period of last fiscal.

• Net direct tax collections up 9.4% to Rs 19.43 lakh crore in FY26 till Feb 10
• Corporate tax up 14.5%, personal income tax up 5.9% year-on-year
• Refunds dropped 18.82 percent, with over 95 percent of cases processed in FY26

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The central government’s direct tax collections, after refunds, stood at Rs 19.43 lakh crore between April 1 to February 10 of FY26, data released by the Income Tax Department showed on Wednesday.

As compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year, the net direct tax collections were up 9.4 percent on year.

According to the I-T data, net corporate tax collections till February 10 stood at Rs 8.89 lakh crore, up 14.5 percent on year. And net non-corporate tax collections (includes personal income tax) stood at Rs 10.03 lakh crore, 5.9 percent higher on year.

The Securities Transaction Tax (STT) in the current fiscal till February 10 stood at Rs 50,279 crore, which is 2.2 percent higher as compared to Rs 49,201 crore in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.

Refunds, meanwhile, stood at Rs 3.34 lakh crore between April 1 – February 10. This is lower by 18.82 percent as compared to same period of last fiscal. Between April-February 10 FY25, refunds stood at Rs 4.11 lakh crore.

The gross direct tax mop-up stood at Rs 22.78 lakh crore, which was 4.09 percent up on year.

Tax officials have been attributing the decline in refunds during the year to structural and procedural factors rather than any administrative tightening. Changes in return-filing behaviour, increased use of pre-filled data, and system-driven validations have altered the pattern of refund generation compared with previous years, officials had indicated.

More than 95 percent of refund cases have already been processed in FY26.

Authorities had also pointed out that refund issuance is closely tied to the pace of return processing and the resolution of data mismatches flagged by the system.

CBDT Chairman Ravi Agarwal had earlier told Moneycontrol that the impact of compliance nudges has also been visible in refund trends. Nudge campaigns conducted over the past two years yielded an additional tax implication of about Rs 9,640 crore, including Rs 8,800 crore from non-foreign-asset related interventions and Rs 840 crore linked to foreign income and asset disclosures. Of the Rs 8,800 crore component, roughly Rs 1,750 crore arose from taxpayers reducing refund claims after revising their filings.