Bucking the lockdown trend, the Centre’s net direct tax collections soared to ₹34,783 crore in April this year. This is a 36.5 per cent jump from the net direct tax mop-up, which stood at ₹25,477 crore.

While gross direct tax collections fell marginally in April, a reason for this spurt in net collections is lower refunds.

According to sources, about ₹6,772 crore of income tax refunds were issued in April this year as against ₹18,473 crore in April 2019.

Meanwhile, gross direct tax collections declined by 5.4 per cent in April 2020 to ₹41,555 crore as compared to ₹43,950 crore in April last year.

The direct tax mop-up could give some reprieve to the Exchequer, which is already faced with slowing goods and services tax collection amid the national lockdown to prevent the rapid spread of Covid-19.

The Centre has deferred the release of revenue data from GST for April.

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