Pandey said the generation of e-way bills, needed for transportation of goods, is back to pre-Covid levels and online payments have risen exponentially.

Collection of Goods and Services Tax (GST), levied when a product is consumed or a service is rendered, has risen for the second month in a row. “The (tax collection) trend shows that it did decline for the past few months, but it is not only on the path of recovery but is also picking up. In the month of September, GST collection was 4 per cent higher than what was there in the corresponding period last year,” Pandey said.

“In the month of October, it has risen by 10 per cent year-on-year with a collection of above Rs 1.05 trillion,” he added. Pandey said the generation of e-way bills, which is mandatory for transporting goods worth over Rs 50,000, has gone up 21 per cent in October, while the number of e-invoice generation has touched 2.9 million IRNs (Invoice Reference Numbers) a day.

“E-way bill and e-invoice coupled with better GST collections show that the economy was not only on path of recovery but also returning to the growth path and picking up steadily,” Pandey, who is also the Revenue Secretary, said.

The gross direct tax collection in April-October period of the current fiscal stood at Rs 4.95 trillion, down 22 per cent over the same period last fiscal. While corporate tax collection fell 26 per cent to Rs 2.65 trillion, personal income tax collection was 16 per cent lower at Rs 2.34 trillion.

GST collection in April-October period of the current fiscal stood at Rs 5.59 trillion, 20 per cent lower than the collection in the same period last fiscal. Notwithstanding the dip in revenues, the government has issued Rs 1.27 trillion worth of income tax refunds and Rs 70,000 crore GST refunds so far this fiscal.

“In last 7 months, a total Rs 2 trillion refund was issued. This was during the time when our collection was less,” Pandey said.

He said the focus on faceless assessment, third-party information gathering and sharing of data between various agencies has helped improve tax collection by making it difficult for people to evade taxes.

Meanwhile, banks, financial and non-banking financial institutions have been asked to take “necessary actions” to credit into the accounts of eligible borrowers by November 5 the difference between compound and simple interest collected on loans of up to Rs 2 crore during the moratorium scheme, RBI has told the Supreme Court.