New Delhi: In an indication that the economy has bounced back, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman J B Mohapatra on Tuesday said the net direct tax collection has registered a whopping 49.02 per cent growth to record Rs 14.09 lakh crore in FY21-22.


The net direct tax mop-up touched Rs 9.45 lakh crore in the previous financial year. “This growth clearly indicated that India’s economy has strengthened and bounced back after two bad years,” Mohapatra said after a two-day annual conference of Income Tax India, according to news agency PTI.


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Rise in tax collection


The net direct tax collection in FY21-22 has registered growth of 34.16 per cent compared to Rs 10.50 lakh crore mop up in FY19-20, according to the PTI. The gross direct tax collection before adjusting for refunds in FY21-22 stood at over Rs 16.34 lakh crore. There was growth of 32.75 per cent from Rs 12.31 lakh crore in the FY21, he noted.


While the gross tax collection in FY21-22 has witnessed growth of 32.42 per cent over the 2019-20 financial year.


Refunds on the upswing


Around 2.43 crore refunds in FY22 were issued, as compared to 2.37 crore in 2020-21, amounting to Rs 2,24,814 crore, said the CBDT chief.


“This includes 2.01 crore refunds of the assessment year 2021-22 itself due to faster processing of returns,” he added.


The CBDT chief added more than 7.14 crore income tax returns (ITRs) were filed for assessment year (AY) 2021-22 as of March 31, 2022 on the new e-filing portal, up by 2.4 per cent over the previous year.


Around 6.97 crore ITRs were filed for AY20-21 till May 31, 2021, the extended last date of the preceding year.


“Optimal utilisation of technology has resulted in reduction of time taken to process the verified ITRs,” he said adding that the average processing time for ITRs filed for AY21-22 is 26 days.