The Tamil Nadu government seems to be on track to meet its target of earning more than 50,000 crore from taxes this fiscal. The state's tax collection recorded a 26% increase during the first half of the financial year when compared to the corresponding period last year -- from 18,336 crore to 23,142 crore.

At a review meeting on Monday, commercial taxes and registration minister B V Ramanaa said the target has been set in order to aid the implementation of welfare and social security schemes announced by chief minister J Jayalalithaa and to further augment the revenue beyond the target of 51,332 crore fixed for the current financial year.

Stating that the government had sanctioned 33.36 crore towards modernisation of checkposts belonging to the department, the minister said 20.15 crore was allotted for construction of new buildings for commercial tax offices which were operating from rented buildings.

A senior official from the finance department said effective tax collection has helped improve the revenue.

"In addition, each year new companies are coming and setting up their base here. This also adds to the tax revenue," he said.

The official said that the number of dealers in Chennai with a taxable turnover of 200 crore has gone up from a little less than hundred to about 160. He said that the state government also recently authorised six more public sector and private sector banks to undertake e-payment of commercial taxes.

The minister said the chief minister had issued orders to fill 1,325 vacant posts in the department to achieve the tax collection target. A total of 1.12 crore was also alloted to the department for the purchase of new vehicles, he said.