With economic growth showing impressive resilience, the government today said it is confident of reaching its tax collection targets, both in the direct and indirect tax segments.

"As things stand now, we will definitely reach the target," Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman S S N Moorthy told reporters here.

Overall, the government had fixed a revenue target of Rs 7.45 lakh crore, including indirect taxes, for the current fiscal, which is about 19 per cent higher than last fiscal.

According to official figures, the net direct tax collection surged by 17.85 per cent to Rs 2.16 lakh crore during April-November this year compared to the same period last fiscal, thereby crossing the 50 per cent of the full year target.

During April-November 2009, net direct tax collection had stood at Rs 1.83 lakh crore.

In the Budget, the government had targetted to collect Rs 4.30 lakh crore from direct tax for the current fiscal.

Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairman S Dutt Majumder concurred with Moorthy's opinion.

"I think we will reach our target," Majumdar said when asked if indirect tax collections will meet the government's target.

The indirect tax collection has risen by 42.3 per cent to Rs 2.07 lakh crore during April-November this year as compared to corresponding period last year, indicating uptick in economic activities.

In the current year, indirect tax collections during April-November constitute 66.3 per cent of the overall target of Rs 3.13 lakh crore fixed for 2010-11.

The Indian economy is already on a recovery path, registering a GDP growth of 8.9 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal.

Similarly, the industrial output in October rose by 10.8 per cent on back of healthy performance of sectors such as automobile, electronic goods and power.

The IIP growth rate on the average stood at 10.3 per cent during the April-October period.

Asked about advance tax, Moorthy said: "The trend is reasonably good (in advanced tax collection). We are growing at a rate of 18 per cent quarter- to-quarter)."

As per official sources, the advance tax outlays of the top 100 companies for the October-December period grew 17.5 per cent over last year, while the overall advance tax collection by the Mumbai circle - the country's largest - for the quarter is expected to grow over 20 per cent.

Advance tax payment is a staggered system of paying taxes and is generally seen as a barometer of a particular company's performance as the tax payments are made in line with profit expectations.

The government had fixed a target of 18 per cent growth in advance tax for this fiscal.

Barring cement, companies in all the sectors such as banking, auto and pharma have paid more advance tax than last year.