India is unlikely to meet the direct tax receipts target of 3.45 trillion rupees ($ 68.02 billion) for financial year 2008/09 ending March 31, as the tax receipts stood at 3.28 trillion rupees on March 30, a finance ministry official said.

"Although the tax figures have still to be finalised for the fiscal, but it seems now that we are unlikely to meet the revised target of 3.45 trillion rupees for this fiscal," the official, who did not wish to be identified, told Reuters on Tuesday.

In February's interim budget for 2009/10, the finance ministry had revised down its forecast for direct tax receipts to 3.45 trillion rupees from 3.65 trillion rupees.

Direct tax receipts between April 1, 2008, and March 16 rose 18 percent from a year ago to 2.96 trillion rupees, including advance taxes paid by the corporates for the fiscal fourth quarter.

The government has forecast the fiscal deficit at 6 percent of gross domestic product, much higher than an initial forecast of 2.5 percent, as growth slows to around 7 percent in 2008/09 from 9 percent a year earlier.

The official said corporate tax receipts stood at 2.09 trillion rupees and personal income tax touched 1.18 trillion rupees till March 30, 2009.