CBIC chairperson Vivek Johri in a communication to officers posted on the tax authority's website said, "As we move into the second half of the present financial year, we need to regroup and refocus our efforts on important areas of work—further augmentation of revenue and improvement in compliance, completion of pending investigation, expeditious disposal of seized items, especially precious metals."

The exhortation to focus on revenue augmentation and compliance improvement comes at a time the government has slightly reduced its gross borrowing for the current fiscal to ₹14.2 trillion, down from the original plan of ₹14.3 trillion while its subsidy outgo on food and fertilizer is set to go up. Centre's direct and indirect tax revenue collections, however, have so far remained robust.

While goods and services tax (GST) receipts remained above the ₹1.4 trillion mark for seven months in a row up to September, net direct tax collections after tax refunds stood at ₹7.45 trillion upto 8 October, which is 16.3% higher than the net collections for the same time a year ago, official data showed.

Both the direct and indirect tax administrations have been using data analytics extensively in addition to holding regular online campaigns to widen the tax base and check non-compliance. GST collections in the month of October is expected to remain buoyant with the festive season boosting consumption.