However, income tax collections declined by 29 per cent to Rs 7,091 crore  (Rs 70.91 billion) against Rs 9,987 crore (Rs 99.87 billion) during the period due to rise in income tax exemption limit to Rs 1 lakh, restructuring of tax slabs in this year's budget and rise in refunds, sources in the finance ministry said.

Corporate tax collections reflected advance taxes, but did not include fringe benefit tax, which will figure in collections in September, the officials said.

In fact, the government gave more refunds in corporate tax compared to collection in the month of April as is the usual trend.  

As such, the collection was in the negative zone of Rs 2,637 crore (Rs 26.37 billion) in April compared to Rs 3,765 crore (Rs 37.65 billion) in the same month of the previous fiscal.

Corporate tax grew more than 20 times at Rs 1,567 crore (Rs 15. 67 billion) in May this fiscal compared to Rs 74 crore (Rs 740 million) in the same month last year.

Income tax collections declined in the first two months of this fiscal as well. It went down by 20.85 per cent at Rs 2,576 crore (Rs 25.76 billion) in April, 2005 against Rs 3,254 crore (Rs 32.54 billion) in the same month of last year.

In the month of May, income tax collections were down by 7.76 per cent at Rs 2,234 crore (Rs 22.34 billion) this year against Rs 2,422 crore (Rs 24.22 billion) last year.