Net direct tax collections till March 17 at Rs 22.80 lakh crore, up 7.2% YoY

Refunds, meanwhile, stood at Rs 4.34 lakh crore between April 1, 2025 – March 17, 2026. This is lower by 5.86 percent as compared to same period of last fiscal.

• Net direct tax collections increased by 7.2% to Rs 22.80 lakh crore
• Corporate tax up 12.75%, non-corporate up 2.7%
• Refunds fell 5.86 percent to Rs 4.34 lakh crore in FY26

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The central government’s direct tax collections, after refunds, stood at Rs 22.80 lakh crore between April 1 to March 17 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 7.2 percent on year.

According to the I-T data, net corporate tax collections till March 17 stood at Rs 10.91 lakh crore, up 12.75 percent on year. And net non-corporate tax collections (includes personal income tax) stood at Rs 11.32 lakh crore, 2.7 percent higher on year.

The Securities Transaction Tax (STT) in the current fiscal till March 17 stood at Rs 55,717 crore, which is 4.9 percent higher as compared to Rs 53,095 crore in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.

Refunds, meanwhile, stood at Rs 4.34 lakh crore between April 1, 2025 – March 17, 2026. This is lower by 5.86 percent as compared to same period of last fiscal. Between April-March 17 FY25, refunds stood at Rs 4.61 lakh crore.

The gross direct tax mop-up stood at Rs 27.14 lakh crore, which was 4.86 percent up on year.

Tax officials have been attributing the decline in refunds during the year to structural and procedural factors. 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.

“Year end collection numbers show a growth of approximately 7 percent driven primarily by corporate tax. Refunds continue to show contraction over the previous year primarily driven by automated scrutiny designed to reduce fraudulent claims. Corporate advance taxes show a positive growth signaling higher earnings on the back of economic growth. Non-corporate taxes are still reeling from the rate cut provided to individual tax payers last year,” Rohinton Sidhwa, Partner, Deloitte India, said.