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.