Government has surpassed the revised indirect tax collections targets for 2007-08 as the revenues from customs, excise and service tax touched about Rs 2,79,000 crore.

The Centre has already achieved the direct tax collections of about Rs 3,12,000 crore for 2007-08, surpassing the revised target of about Rs 3,05,000 crore, and the total tax collections stood at around Rs 5,91,000 crore for the fiscal.

"We have crossed the revised estimates of about 2,79,000 crore indirect tax collections for 2007-08," Central Board of Excise and Customs Chairman P C Jha told reporters here.

Total indirect tax collections included customs collections of around Rs 1,04,000 crore, excise collections of around 1,25,000 crore and service tax amounting to over Rs 50,000 crore as on March 31, 2008, he said.

Referring to the budget estimates of about Rs 3,22,000 crore indirect tax collection for 2008-09, Jha said, "We are hopeful to achieve the target considering the continuing high growth of the economy."

He said final figures of service tax collections are still to come as data for about 5.5 lakh tax payers is being collected but the targets have been achieved. It is despite cut in excise duty from 16 to 14 per cent in the Budget 2008-09, and reduction in customs duty on various item after the Budget.