Corporation tax collections in the Mumbai circle for the April 1-December 15 period grew 74.5 per cent over the same period last year.

Mumbai is still the largest contributor to income-tax revenues in the country, corporate tax collections from this circle are one indication of the country's corporate performance.

Corporates coughed up Rs 28,976 crore during the period (Rs 16,600 crore), according to a news release issued by the Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax, Mumbai.

Increased corporate profitability was the reason, the number of returns (including individual and corporate) received during the fiscal (up to November 30) showing a growth of only 2.39 per cent, year-on-year.

There were 16,35,977 returns received, as against 15,91,450 a year ago.

Income-tax collections in the circle rose 27.3 per cent, to Rs 11,431 crore (Rs 8,978 crore); while other taxes grew 66 per cent, to Rs 3,885 crore (Rs 2,329 crore).

Net revenue collection in the circle under all heads grew 58.7 per cent, to Rs 44,293 crore. (The Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax, had set a target of Rs 69,000 crore for the fiscal).

"Advance tax (corporate) of the top 100 cases" amounted to Rs 8,462 crore as on December 15. This is 57 per cent higher than a year ago.

Another trend this fiscal appeared to be electronic filing of returns, with 57,415 corporate returns having been filed electronically and 6,739 manually.