The Centre's net direct tax collections have surged 36.5 per cent during April 1-November 3 to Rs 93,836 crore, as compared to collections of Rs 68,739 crore in the same period last year.

Gross direct tax collections for the period under review stood at Rs 1,14,988 crore (Rs 85,550 crore). Official sources said that the income-tax department had received 1.26 crore returns (mostly individuals) as of July-end this year, an increase of 37 per cent over the 0.92 crore returns received by July-end last year.

Asked what had contributed to the buoyancy in direct tax revenues this year, sources said the growth came from the increased number of taxpayers as well as better performance of the economy. The income-tax department expects the taxpayer base to improve from about 3.2 crore last year to about 3.5 crore this year.

"Corporate performance has been good on account of improved productivity. This has also led to increase in salaries, which means more tax deduction at source. Certain sunset clauses have been removed and this has resulted in more income-tax flows over the last few years. A case in point is taxation of export profits," sources said.

While gross income-tax collections during April 1-November 3 stood at Rs 36,775 crore (Rs 29,293 crore), gross corporate tax collections stood at Rs 72,859 crore (Rs 52,878 crore). Fringe benefit tax for the period under review stood at Rs 2,352 crore (Rs 1,735 crore).

The budget estimate for direct taxes for 2006-07 has been pegged at Rs 2,10,684 crore.