The Finance Ministry expects the tax revenues of VAT-implementing States to grow by at least 20 per cent this fiscal even as it admits that the current heady growth rates of 25-27 per cent might be difficult to sustain in the remaining months.

In the first six months of the current fiscal, tax revenues of the 30 VAT implementing States grew by 27.3 per cent to Rs 54,610 crore compared with Rs 42,906 crore in the same period last year.

Official sources said that this 27 per cent growth rate level might be difficult to sustain and pointed out that there are some signs of slowing down in October 2006.

"Some moderation in growth rate may happen. But we may still end the year with at least 20 per cent growth, which is quite good," a revenue department official said.

The three non-VAT implementing States Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Uttar Pradesh - registered a 22.4 per cent increase in tax revenues during April-September 2006 to Rs 13,674 crore as compared to Rs 11,173 crore in the same period last year.

Tax revenues of some of the major Value-Added Tax implementing States in April-September 2006 are: Delhi Rs 3,160 crore (Rs 2,566 crore); Maharashtra Rs 11,134 crore (Rs 8,189 crore); Haryana Rs 2,560 crore (Rs 2,096 crore); Kerala Rs 3,900 crore (Rs 3,080 crore); Karnataka Rs 4,723 crore (Rs 3,959 crore); Punjab Rs 2,260 crore (Rs 2,008 crore); Andhra Pradesh Rs 7,233 crore (Rs 5,430 crore); West Bengal Rs 2,597 crore (Rs 2,269 crore); Gujarat Rs 5,516 crore (Rs 4,099 crore); Madhya Pradesh Rs 1,865 crore (Rs 1,542 crore) and Rajasthan Rs 2,771 crore (Rs 2,244 crore).

Among the non-VAT implementing States, Tamil Nadu's tax revenue in April-September 2006 stood at Rs 7,845 crore (Rs 6,567 crore). The tax revenue of Uttar Pradesh increased to Rs 5,646 crore in April-September 2006 from Rs 4,455 crore.