Direct tax collection in the first eight months of this fiscal registered an 18% growth over the same period last year with net receipts at Rs 2,16,628 crore. The major boost came from the robust industry performance with the corporate taxes showing an increase of more than 22%.

In the April-November period, net  direct tax collection stood at Rs 2,16,628 crore as against Rs 1,83,822 crore of the same period last fiscal, showing a growth of 17.8%. It has crossed 50% of the Budget estimates of Rs 4,30,000 crore for 2010-11.

The corporate I-T collection was 22.3% higher for the April-November period at Rs 1,38,461 crore as against Rs 1,13,210 crore in last year. The growth in personal I-T, including STT, and residual FBT/BCTT, was 10.7%. The net collection in this bracket was Rs 77,768 crore as against Rs 70,278 crore last year.

Growth of Securities Transaction Tax turned positive for the first time during the fiscal at 0.5% at Rs 4,373 crore against Rs 4,349 crore last year.

Direct taxes, now a major resource provider to the central government, have grown at an average annual rate of 24% in the last five years and have nearly trebled from Rs 1,32,771 crore in 2004-05 to about Rs 3,78,000 crore in 2009-10, increasing its share from 4.1% to 6.1% of the GDP.

FM Pranab Mukherjee had asked CBDT to exceed the budget target to compensate for the low collection on the indirect taxes front.

He had said the department must look beyond big cities and widen the tax base in smaller towns and cities.