New Delhi, Dec 13 (IANS): The Income Tax Department has issued tax refunds of Rs 1.57 lakh crore till December 11, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said on Friday.

Pandey said at a press meet which was held for showing the report card of the government initiated measures that tax refund cases have gone up by 17 per cent to 2.16 crore. He said the department issued tax refunds of Rs 1.57 lakh crore till December 11.

He said "By December 15, the advanced tax for Q3 will come and at that stage we will get an idea of what is going to be the impact of corporate tax reduction announced in September. Each company will assess how much tax they have to pay for the current year after adjusting the tax liabilities paid in first two quarters. After that only we will come to know what is the revenue collection."

In September, the government announced reduction in corporate tax rate for all existing companies.

An existing domestic company can opt to pay tax at 22 per cent (i.e. effective tax rate of 25.17 per cent) as against the existing highest effective rate of 34.94 per cent if it does not claim any tax exemption/deduction.