Raising the threshold of exemption of personal income tax impacted the net direct collection in fiscal year 2025-26 as it ended with a shortfall of around ₹81,000 crore as against revised estimates (RE), data released by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Monday showed.
However, the collection of ₹23.4 lakh crore was over 5 per cent higher than collection of ₹22.61 lakh crore of Fiscal Year 2024-25.
In the RE for FY26, the government projected its direct tax collection at ₹24.21 lakh crore. This included a corporate tax of ₹11.09 lakh crore and non-corporate tax (including STT) of ₹13.12 lakh crore. According to the data, net corporate tax mop-up was ₹10.99 lakh crore, , non-corporate tax including Securities Transaction Tax, was about ₹12.41 lakh crore.
Data also showed that corporation tax collections saw healthy growth, while non-corporate tax (includes taxes paid by individuals, HUFs, Firms, AoPs, BoIs, Local Authorities, Artificial Juridical Person) remained broadly stable. During the period under consideration, Securities Transaction Tax (STT) jumped, reflecting strong market activity during the year. Overall, tax buoyancy appears moderate, suggesting growth is holding but not accelerating sharply.
Refund issuance dipped 1.09 per cent year-on-year to ₹4.71 lakh crore in 2025-26. Gross direct tax collection during the recently concluded fiscal stood at about ₹28.12 lakh crore, up 4.03 per cent from the 2024-25 fiscal.
According to Rohinton Sidhwa, Partner at Deloitte as expected year-end tax revenues have been largely flat with mediocre growth of 5 per cent. NCT revenues have surprisingly sustained themselves in spite of a very significant rate cut. “This is the largest component of direct tax collections and it’s reflective of both growth in volumes and no. of taxpayers,” he said while adding that STT revenues have also grown 8 per cent reflecting strong buy-sell activity on the stock market.
Published on May 4, 2026