New Delhi, Dec 10 (IANS): Showing an increase of 15.7 per cent over the last year, the gross direct tax collections till November stood at Rs 6.75 lakh crore, according to provisional figures released on Monday.

This was despite a 50 per cent rise in filing of income-tax returns over the last year.

The government said the collections in the corresponding period of the last fiscal included collections under the Income Declaration Scheme amounting to Rs 10,833 crore, which do not form part of the current year's collections.

Of the total tax collected, refunds amounting to Rs 1.23 lakh crore have been issued during April-November, which is 20.8 per cent higher than refunds issued during the same period in the preceding year, the Finance Ministry said in an official statement.

"Net collections (after adjusting for refunds) have increased by 14.7 per cent to Rs 5.51 lakh crore during April-November. The net direct tax collections represent 48 per cent of the total Budget Estimates (Rs 11.5 lakh crore) of direct taxes for FY19," the statement said.

It said while the Corporate Income Tax was growing at 17.7 per cent, Personal Income Tax collections were growing at 16 per cent.

Last week, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sushil Chandra had said that over six crore income-tax returns had already been filed this year for the assessment year 2018-19, showing an increase of 50 per cent over the last year.

He also expressed confidence that the government would meet the Rs 11.5 lakh crore direct tax collection target.