The Centre's direct tax collection grew by just 3.27 per cent at Rs 73,990 crore (Rs 739.9 billion) in the first four months as higher refund outgo saw an increase of over 53 per cent.

"Lower growth in net collection was mainly on account of higher tax refund outgo of 53.36 per cent at Rs 20,768 crore (Rs 207.68 billion) as against Rs 13,542 crore (Rs 135.42 billion) last fiscal," an official statement said.

Corporate taxes grew by 2.61 per cent to Rs 42,684 crore (Rs 426.84 billion) during the period from to Rs 41,598 crore (Rs 415.98 billion) in the same period last year.

In the personal income tax segment, government collections were only 4.33 per cent higher at Rs 31,279 crore (Rs 312.79 billion).

On securities transaction tax front, collections had declined in the first three months. However, for the four months ending July, STT mop-up grew by 3.55 per to Rs 2,240 crore (Rs 22.4 billion).