Bhubaneswar, April 26 : The net direct tax collections (income tax and corporate tax) reached an all time high of Rs 14.09 lakh crore in financial year 2021-22 against Rs 9.45 lakh crore collections in FY 2020-21, CBDT Chairman J.B. Mohapatra said on Tuesday. The net direct tax collection has increased by 49.02 per cent during financial year 2021-22, while it has registered a growth of 34.16 per cent in FY 2021-22 over the collections of 2019-20 when the net collection was Rs 10,50,680.56 crore, and a growth of 23.90 per cent over 2018-19 when the net collection was Rs 11,37,718.48 crore, he said. The gross direct tax collection (before adjusting for refunds) for 2021-22 stands at Rs 16,34,454.95 crore compared to Rs 12,31,270.52 crore in 2020-21, thereby registering a growth of 32.75 per cent, said Mohapatra. He also said that the gross collection in 2021-22 has registered a growth of 32.42 per cent over the collections of 2019-20 when the gross collection was Rs 12,34,258.42 crore and a growth of 25.84 per cent over the collections of 2018-19 when the gross collection was Rs 12,98,797.32 crore. During the last financial year, 2.43 crore refunds were issued compared to 2.37 crore in 2020-21 amounting to Rs 2,24,814 crore. This includes 2.01 crore refunds of AY 2021-22 itself due to faster processing of returns. More than 7.14 crore Income Tax Returns (ITRs) were filed for AY 2021-22 as on March 31, 2022 on the new e-filing portal, compared to 6.97 crore ITRs filed for AY 2020-21 till May 31, 2021 (extended last date of the preceding year) representing an increase of 2.4 per cent. Mohapatra said that the tremendous growth in direct and indirect tax collections in the country indicates the strengthening of the Indian economy. A lot of reforms have been undertaken resulting in all these positive results, he added. About the budget collection of Odisha region, he said it has exceeded the budget target during the last fiscal. The region has collected Rs 15,481 crore in the last financial year against a target of Rs 14,000 crore, and the collection during FY 2021-22 marked an increase of 52.50 per cent over the Budget collections of previous year. The state has huge potential and is growing at par with national statistics in terms of tax collections, he added. /IANS