The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has asked income tax officials to pull their socks up to shore up revenue collection, noting that it is at present "not satisfactory".

CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra has issued a directive to all his regional chiefs, asking them to take "all measures to increase revenue collection so that the position at the end of September quarter comes in line with the desired growth rate".

In the directive issued yesterday, Chandra wrote to the Income Tax (I-T) Principal Chief Commissioners that "sustained efforts throughout the year" were required to achieve the target.

The CBDT chief observed that a review of direct tax collections till June showed that the growth in revenue collection, on several parameters, was "not satisfactory".

"The gross collections have increased by only 8.4 percent and it is only due to lower refunds that the net collections are showing a growth rate of about 15 percent," Chandra said and cautioned that once more refunds were issued, the overall growth rate might again register a dip.

Chandra said the growth rate of collection under heads such as advance tax, tax deducted at source (TDS) and others was "significantly lower" than that last year.

He said the review conducted by the board found that most I-T regions in the country were "showing very low growth either in terms of gross collections or net collections or both".

The chairman directed the department heads to tap various sources to improve the collection and look at "alternative sources" to make up for the deficit.

The CBDT, in a statement yesterday, said the net direct tax collection (Rs 1.42 lakh crore) represented 14.5 percent of the total budget estimates of direct taxes of Rs 9.8 lakh crore for financial year 2017-18.

The CBDT is the policy-making body of the I-T Department, which is entrusted with the task of collecting direct taxes under various heads.