Belying apprehensions of a slowdown, net direct tax collections grew by a whopping 46.95% in the first four months of the current fiscal (April-July 2008) to Rs 71,648 crore against Rs 48,765 crore in corresponding period of the previous fiscal. In fact, direct tax collections rose by 93% to Rs 14,275 crore in July, 2008, compared to Rs 7,365 crore in July, 2007.

Corporate tax collections grew by 50.08% to Rs 41,598 crore as compared to Rs 27,718 crore in April-July, 2007. Personal income tax collections including fringe benefit tax, securities tax and banking cash transaction tax were up by 42.82% to Rs 29,982 crore against Rs 20,993 crore during the corresponding period last year.

Growth momentum in direct tax collections should give some respite to the government, which had revised the 2008-09 target to Rs 3,95,000 crore. Direct tax collections have largely been driven by growth in tax deducted and tax collected at source revenue. TDS/TCS grew by 44.56% at Rs 45,935 crore against Rs 31,776 crore during the corresponding period previous fiscal. Growth in corporate TDS/TCS stood at a whopping 60.6 %.

Robust growth in direct tax collections is a result of tax education and compliance mechanism put in place by the Income Tax department in the area of TDS/TCS and indicates further improvement in tax administration and tax compliance levels, a Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) statement said.

FBT was up by 44.34% to Rs 1,260 crore in the period under review compared to Rs 873 crore in the corresponding period previous fiscal. STT grew by 15.46% to Rs 2,164 crore against Rs 1,874 crore in April-July, 2007. BCTT rose by 33.75% to Rs 223 crore in April-July, 2008 against Rs 167 crore in the corresponding period previous fiscal.

Mumbai and Delhi recorded a growth of 36.33% and 76.40%, respectively, in direct tax collections. Other regions that witnessed high tax growth include Nagpur (77.80%), Kochi (58.08%), Kolkata (49.87%), Hyderabad (40.69%) and Bengaluru (40.25 %).