The direct tax collections, including corporate and personal income tax, have grown by 46.95 percent to Rs 71,648 crore (Rs 716.48 billion) in April-July this year mainly on account of surge in TDS receipts and buoyancy in corporate profits.

"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 tax deducted at source (TDS) and tax collection at source (TCS [Get Quote]) and indicates further improvement in tax administration and tax compliance levels," said a Finance Ministry statement.

Growth in corporate TDS/TCS was particularly high at 60.6 percent. Analysts said growth in tax collections, despite slow down in industrial production, will help the government to meet the fiscal deficit targets while footing the bill of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.

The Finance Ministry has already revised its target of direct tax collections from Rs 3.65 lakh crore to about Rs 4 lakh crore.

During the first four months of this fiscal, corporate taxes grew by 50.08 percent and stood at Rs 41,598 crore (Rs 415.98 billion) against Rs 27,718 crore (Rs 277.18 billion) during the corresponding period last fiscal.

Meanwhile, personal income tax including fringe benefit tax, security transaction tax and banking cash transaction tax grew at 42.82 percent to Rs 29,982 crore (Rs 299.82 billion) against Rs 20,993 crore (Rs 209.93 billion) during the same period.

Fringe benefit tax touched Rs 1,260 crore (Rs 12.60 billion) in April-July period against Rs 873 crore (Rs 8.73 billion) a year ago, and grew by 44.34 percent.

However, the revenue collections from STT rose by 15.46 percent and stood at Rs 2,164 crore (Rs 21.64 billion) against Rs 1,874 crore (Rs 18.74 billion) during that period while collections from BCTT was up 33.75 percent to Rs 223 crore (Rs 2.23 billion) against Rs 167 crore (Rs 1.67 billion). 

 India's top income tax payers