New Delhi, Jan 7 (IANS): Showing an increase of 14.1 per cent over the same period last year, the gross direct tax collections till December stood at Rs 8.74 lakh crore, according to provisional figures released on Monday.

The government said that collections of the corresponding period of FY18 also included "extraordinary" collections under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS), 2016 amounting to Rs 10,844 crore, which did not form part of the current year's collections.

Of the total tax collected, refunds amounting to Rs 1.3 lakh crore have been issued during April to December, which is 17 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 13.6 per cent to Rs 7.43 lakh crore. The net direct tax collections represent 64.7 per cent of the total Budget Estimates (Rs 11.50 lakh crore) of direct taxes for FY19," it said.

The Ministry said that while the gross Corporate Income Tax was growing at 14.8 per cent, gross Personal Income Tax collections were growing at 17.2 per cent.

"After adjustment of refunds, the net growth in Corporate Income Tax collections is 16 per cent and that in Personal Income Tax collections is 14.8 per cent," the statement said.

"An amount of Rs. 3.64 lakh crore has been collected as Advance Tax, which is 14.5 per cent higher than the Advance Tax collections during the corresponding period of last year."