Bhubaneswar, Apr 26 (PTI) The net direct tax collection has registered a whopping 49.02 per cent growth to over Rs 14.09 lakh crore in the 2021-22 fiscal as the country's economy "bounced back" after being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, CBDT Chairman J B Mohapatra said here on Tuesday.

The net direct tax mop-up was Rs 9.45 lakh crore in the previous financial year.

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"This growth clearly indicated that India's economy has strengthened and bounced back after two bad years," Mohapatra told reporters after a two-day annual conference of Income Tax India.

The net direct tax collection in FY 2021-22 has posted a growth of 34.16 per cent as compared to Rs 10.50 lakh crore mop up in FY 2019-20.

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The gross direct tax collection before adjusting for refunds in the 2021-22 fiscal (FY 22) stood at over Rs 16.34 lakh crore, registering a growth of 32.75 per cent from Rs 12.31 lakh crore in the FY21, he said.

The gross collection in the 2021-22 fiscal has registered a growth of 32.42 per cent over that of the 2019-20 financial year.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes chief said 2.43 crore refunds in FY22 were issued, as compared to 2.37 crore in 2020-21, amounting to Rs 2,24,814 crore.

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

Mohapatra said 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.

Altogether 6.97 crore ITRs were filed for AY 2020-21 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 AY 2021-22 is 26 days.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)