Pranab Mukherjee has a big problem at hand, if the current Mumbai tax collections for the first quarter is any indication. The Mecca of tax collection has witnessed a decline in tax collection for the first quarter so far.

This is exclusive year on year data that we have picked up from our sources up to June 22, 2010. The all India picture looks pretty impressive and pretty healthy. The all India tax collections including corporate tax, income tax and securities transaction tax (STT) are up by a healthy 16%.

But here there is a spot of bother. Mumbai perhaps is the first time in many days, the Mumbais tax collections have recorded a dip of 0.4%. That perhaps could be attributed to the lower STT and TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) collections from the Mumbai circle.

On the other hand, we had Delhi three months ago, it had recorded the lowest growth rate amongst all income tax department circles in India. This time around, three months later, Delhi seems to have bounced back with a very impressive all India growth rate of 48%. Delhis collections in fact stand at Rs 11,026 crore versus Rs 7,443 crore.

Bhopal has recorded the highest growth rate amongst all IT circles in India, a staggering growth rate of 173%. Bhopals collections stand at Rs 1,524 crore versus Rs 558 crore on a year on year basis.

In fact with the exception of Mumbai all the other metros, all the major cities also seem to have performed well. Kolkatas collections are up 17%, Chennais collections are up 9%, Bangalores collections are up 19.3% and we have Hyderabads collections are up 9.4%. So, very clearly Mumbai needs to pull up its socks, if India has to meet that daunting all India tax collection target of Rs 4,30,000 crore.