Revenue collection is looking up with the corporate direct tax mop up registering a 44% growth year-on-year in December 2009 and 14% in April-December 2009 period. And the government is bullish on surpassing the direct tax collection target of Rs 3.7 lakh crore by at least Rs 10,000 crore.

Reflecting strong revival in the industrial growth, December witnessed a jump in the corporate tax collection to Rs 53,293 crore as against Rs 37,002 crore in the same period last in 2008-09. In the nine months up to December, corporate taxes increased to Rs 1.66 lakh crore against Rs 1.46 lakh crore in the same period in 2008.

The net direct tax collection during the first three quarters up to December 2009 stood at Rs 2.5 lakh crore, up from Rs 2.3 lakh crore in the same period last year, showing a growth of 8.5%.

In December, the net tax collection was Rs 66,410 crore compared to Rs 53,347 crore in the same month in 2008. The rise in tax collection reflects a turnaround in the industrial output and consumption.

However, the personal income tax (PIT) collection witnessed a negative growth. In December, PIT declined by 19.7% to Rs 13,117 crore as against Rs 16,345 crore in the same period last year.

In the first nine months also, the PIT, which includes securities transaction tax, fringe benefit tax and banking cash transaction tax, declined by 0.4% to Rs 83,178 crore from Rs 83,524 crore in the corresponding period last year.

In 2009-10, the government had revised its budget estimate by increasing the direct tax target to Rs 4 lakh crore. However, a lower growth rate of 3%-4% on an average till November made it go back to the Budget estimate.

Apart from the regular assessment, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is hopeful of mopping up at least Rs 25,000 crore from scrutiny cases where additional demands are raised after re-verification of returns. Last year, the government had collected around Rs 30,000 crore from a similar exercise.

Even the corporate advance tax in the third quarter had been very encouraging, registering a growth of 42.6%, the highest for the entire fiscal.

The advance direct tax payments received till December 15 reflected the economy bouncing back with major corporates projecting the highest profitability for the current fiscal belonging to banking, telecom, power, information technology (IT), auto, oil and consumer goods.